20.
About the Authors
Stephen P. Robbins
Education
Ph.D. University of Arizona
Professional Experience
Academic Positions: Professor, San Diego State University, Southern Illinois
University at Edwardsville, University of Baltimore, Concordia University in
Montreal, and University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Research: Research interests have focused on conflict, power, and politics in
organizations, behavioral decision making, and the development of effective
interpersonal skills.
Books Published: World’s best-selling author of textbooks in both management
and organizational behavior. His books have sold more than 5 million copies
and have been translated into 20 languages; editions have been adapted for
Canada, Australia, South Africa, and India, such as these:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 11th ed. (Prentice Hall, 2012)
Management, 11th ed. with Mary Coulter (Prentice Hall, 2012)
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 10th ed., with David DeCenzo
(Wiley, 2010)
Prentice Hall’s Self-Assessment Library 3.4 (Prentice Hall, 2010)
Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed., with David DeCenzo and Mary Coulter
(Prentice Hall, 2013)
Supervision Today! 7th ed., with David DeCenzo and Robert Wolter (Prentice
Hall, 2013)
Training in Interpersonal Skills: TIPS for Managing People at Work, 6th ed., with
Phillip Hunsaker (Prentice Hall, 2012)
Managing Today! 2nd ed. (Prentice Hall, 2000)
Organization Theory, 3rd ed. (Prentice Hall, 1990)
The Truth About Managing People, 2nd ed. (Financial Times/Prentice Hall,
2008)
Decide and Conquer: Make Winning Decisions and Take Control of Your Life
(Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2004).
Other Interests
In his “other life,” Dr. Robbins actively participates in masters’ track competition. Since turning 50 in 1993, he has won 18 national championships and
12 world titles. He is the current world record holder at 100 meters (12.37 seconds)
and 200 meters (25.20 seconds) for men 65 and over.
xx

21.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
xxi
Timothy A. Judge
Education
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Professional Experience
Academic Positions: Franklin D. Schurz Chair, Department of Management,
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame; Matherly-McKethan
Eminent Scholar in Management, Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida; Stanley M. Howe Professor in Leadership, Henry B.
Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa; Associate Professor (with tenure),
Department of Human Resource Studies, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University; Lecturer, Charles University, Czech Republic, and Comenius University, Slovakia; Instructor, Industrial/Organizational Psychology,
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Research: Dr. Judge’s primary research interests are in (1) personality, moods,
and emotions; (2) job attitudes; (3) leadership and influence behaviors; and
(4) careers (person–organization fit, career success). Dr. Judge has published
more than 140 articles on these and other major topics in journals such as Journal of Organizational Behavior, Personnel Psychology, Academy of Management Journal,
Journal of Applied Psychology, European Journal of Personality, and European Journal
of Work and Organizational Psychology.
Fellowship: Dr. Judge is a fellow of the American Psychological Association,
the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, and the American Psychological Society.
Awards: In 1995, Dr. Judge received the Ernest J. McCormick Award for
Distinguished Early Career Contributions from the Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology. In 2001, he received the Larry L. Cummings Award
for mid-career contributions from the Organizational Behavior Division of the
Academy of Management. In 2007, he received the Professional Practice Award
from the Institute of Industrial and Labor Relations, University of Illinois.
Books Published: H. G. Heneman III, T. A. Judge, and J. D. Kammeyer-Mueller,
Staffing Organizations, 7th ed. (Madison, WI: Mendota House/Irwin, 2011)
Other Interests
Although he cannot keep up (literally!) with Dr. Robbin’s accomplishments on
the track, Dr. Judge enjoys golf, cooking and baking, literature (he’s a particular fan of Thomas Hardy and is a member of the Thomas Hardy Society), and
keeping up with his three children, who range in age from 23 to 9.

22.
Preface
Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Organizational Behavior! Long considered
the standard for all organizational behavior textbooks, this edition continues
its tradition of making current, relevant research come alive for students. While
maintaining its hallmark features—clear writing style, cutting-edge content, and
engaging pedagogy—the fourteenth edition has been updated to reflect the most
recent research within the field of organizational behavior. This is one of the
most comprehensive and thorough revisions of Organizational Behavior we’ve undertaken, and while we’ve preserved the core material, we’re confident that this
edition reflects the most important research and topical issues facing organizations, managers, and employees.
Key Changes to the Fifteenth Edition
•
The most substantial updating ever. The following sections of each chapter
are new to the fifteenth edition:
• Opening Vignette
• Myth or Science?
• Ethical Choice
• Point/Counterpoint
• Case Incident
•
In addition, the following material is substantially revised and updated:
• Case Incident (those not entirely new are revised and updated)
• OB Poll (more than half are new to this edition)
• Ethical Dilemma (more than half are new to this edition)
• Photos/captions (more than half are new to this edition)
•
New feature: glOBalization!, which features organizational behavior in an
international context.
Improved integration of global implications: With the explosion of international research, global OB research is now woven into each chapter, rather
than in a stand-alone section at the end of the chapter.
Revision to Summary and Implications for Managers section, with more
focus on practical ways to apply the material on the job.
NEW videos—up-to-date videos showing management topics in action,
access to the complete management video library, as well as instructional
materials for integrating clips from popular movies into your class, are at
www.mymanagementlab.com.
•
•
•
Chapter-by-Chapter Changes
Chapter 1: What Is Organizational Behavior?
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (The New Normal?)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Most Acts of Workplace Bullying Are Men Attacking
Women”)
•
New OB Model, with better integration with pedagogy (structure) of book
xxii

23.
PREFACE
•
•
•
•
xxiii
New Point–Counterpoint (Lost in Translation?)
New An Ethical Choice (Can You Learn from Failure?)
New Case Incident (Lessons for ‘Undercover’ Bosses)
New Case Incident (Era of the Disposable Worker?)
Chapter 2: Diversity in Organizations
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (The Rise and Fall of Erin Callan)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Dual-Career Couples Divorce Less”)
•
Enhanced coverage of stereotyping and discrimination research
•
Revised content regarding age discrimination and implications of an aging
workforce
•
Updates to discussion of disability in the workplace
•
Expanded coverage of sexual orientation discrimination
•
New material and integration of diversity with international/cultural diversity
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Men Have More Mathematical Ability Than Women)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Religious Tattoos)
•
New Case Incident (Increasing Age Diversity in the Workplace)
•
Updated Case Incident (The Flynn Effect)
Chapter 3: Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (What Does SAS Stand For?)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Favorable Job Attitudes Make Organizations More
Profitable”)
•
Review of recent studies on within-person variation in job attitudes
•
New developments in organizational commitment
•
Updated material on organizational citizenship behaviors
•
New perspectives on attitudes and organizational performance
•
New ethical dilemma
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Employer–Employee Loyalty Is an Outdated
Concept)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Do Employers Owe Workers More Satisfying Jobs?)
•
New Case Incident (Crafting a Better Job)
•
Updated Case Incident (Long Hours, Hundreds of E-Mails, and No Sleep:
Does This Sound Like a Satisfying Job?)
Chapter 4: Emotions and Moods
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Love at Work: Taboo No More?)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“We Are Better Judges of When Others Are Happy
Than When They Are Sad”)
•
Revised introduction to the topic
•
Review of research on moods and employee attachment
•
New section on “moral emotions”
•
Discussion of emotion regulation strategies and their consequences
•
New research on gender and emotions
•
Updated content on emotional displays at work
•
New section on Emotional Intelligence, with substantially more coverage and a
new exhibit
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Sometimes Blowing Your Top Is a Good Thing)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Schadenfreude)
•
New Case Incident (Is It Okay to Cry at Work?)
•
Updated Case Incident (Can You Read Emotions from Faces?)

24.
xxiv
PREFACE
Chapter 5: Personality and Values
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Changing of the Guard in Japan: Is it the Economy, or the Values?)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Personality Predicts the Performance of Entrepreneurs”)
•
Introduces concepts related to dispositional self- and other-orientation
•
New material regarding vocational choices
•
New discussion of values and reactions to violations of employee values
•
Major revision regarding Hofstede’s model of culture and its consequences
•
Updated information on personality and expatriate success
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Millennials Are More Narcissistic)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Should You Try to Change Someone’s Personality?)
•
New Case Incident (Leadership from an Introvert’s Perspective)
•
Updated Case Incident (Is There a Price for Being Too Nice?)
Chapter 6: Perception and Individual Decision Making
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Do Machines Make Better Decisions?)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Creative Decision Making Is a Right-Brain Activity”)
•
Review of recent work on self-serving biases
•
New information on stereotyping processes
•
Discussion of latest trends in decision errors research
•
Updated discussion of culture and perceptions
•
New section on Financial Decision Making and how it informs to understand
recent and current crises
•
New Experiential Exercise
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Checklists Lead to Better Decisions)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Whose Ethical Standards to Follow?)
•
New Case Incident (Computerized Decision Making)
•
Updated Case Incident (Predictions That Didn’t Quite Pan Out)
Chapter 7: Motivation Concepts
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (The Motivations of the 99ers)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“The Support of Others Improves Our Chances of
Accomplishing Our Goals”)
•
New material on psychological need theories
•
Increased discussion of employee engagement
•
Updates to the discussion on goal-setting theory
•
New perspectives on equity and organizational justice
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Fear Is a Powerful Motivator)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Motivated to Behave Unethically)
•
New Case Incident (It’s Not Fair!)
•
Updated Case Incident (Bullying Bosses)
Chapter 8: Motivation: From Concepts to Applications
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Motivation Minus the Moolah)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“CEO Pay Can’t Be Measured”)
•
Updated discussion of job characteristics
•
New coverage of flextime, telecommuting, and related work practices
•
Revised discussion of employee empowerment and its effects
•
Discussion of innovations in gainsharing practices
•

25.
PREFACE
•
•
•
xxv
New Point–Counterpoint (“If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy, You Aren’t
Spending It Right”)
New Case Incident (Bonuses Can Backfire)
Updated Case Incident (Multitasking: A Good Use of Your Time?)
Chapter 9: Foundations of Group Behavior
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (To the Clickers Go the Spoils)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Asians Have Less Ingroup Bias Than Americans”)
•
New material on dysfunctional behavior in teams
•
Discussion of minority influence on group decision making
•
Introduces material on team mental models
•
Updated information on group decision errors and groupthink
•
New information on international variations in group behavior
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Affinity Groups Fuel Business Success)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Should You Use Group Peer Pressure?)
•
New Case Incident (Negative Aspects of Collaboration?)
•
Updated Case Incident (Herd Behavior and the Housing Bubble [and
Collapse])
Chapter 10: Understanding Work Teams
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Killing bin Laden)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Teams Work Best Under Angry Leaders”)
•
Updated discussion of strategies to improve team performance
•
Review of research on team decision-making strategies
•
New perspectives on creativity in teams
•
New material on team proactivity
•
Presents new literature on work teams in international contexts
•
New Point–Counterpoint (We Can Learn Much about Work Teams from
Studying Sports Teams)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Using Global Virtual Teams as an Environmental
Choice)
•
New Case Incident (Why Don’t Teams Work Like They’re Supposed To?)
•
Updated Case Incident (Multicultural Multinational Teams at IBM)
Chapter 11: Communication
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Goldman Rules)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“We Know What Makes Good Liars Good”)
•
New section on Social Networking
•
New section on Persuasive Communication strategies
•
Discussion of how to frame messages for maximum impact
•
Discussion of the effects of authority, expertise, and liking on communication effectiveness
•
Updated discussion of body language in communication
•
Introduces new ideas about the effects of electronic communications
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Social Networking Is Good Business)
•
New An Ethical Choice (The Ethics of Gossip at Work)
•
New Case Incident (Using Social Media to Your Advantage)
•
Updated Case Incident (Should Companies That Fire Shoot First?)

27.
PREFACE
•
•
•
•
xxvii
Updated review of the relationship between organizational structure and
attitudes
New An Ethical Choice (Downsizing with a Conscience)
New Case Incident (Creative Deviance: Bucking the Hierarchy?)
Updated Case Incident (Siemens’ Simple Structure—Not)
Chapter 16: Organizational Culture
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Ursula M. Burns and the Culture of Xerox)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Employees Treat Customers the Same Way the
Organization Treats Them”)
•
New review of basic issues in organizational culture and subcultures
•
Enhanced discussion of ethical culture
•
Review of culture and organizational performance
•
Revised discussion of organizational socialization practices and outcomes
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Organizations Should Strive to Create a Positive
Organizational Culture)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Designing a Culture of Ethical Voice)
•
New Case Incident (Did Toyota’s Culture Cause Its Problems?)
•
Updated Case Incident (Mergers Don’t Always Lead to Culture Clashes)
Chapter 17: Human Resource Policies and Practices
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Testing NFL Quarterbacks)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Work Is Making Us Fat”)
•
Discussion of the implications of the Great Recession
•
New material on legal issues
•
Updated discussion of the effects of high performance work practice on
employee attitudes and behavior
•
Expanded discussion of the effects of staffing decisions on employee
turnover
•
New section on Job Performance and Workplace Civility
•
New material related to performance appraisals and rater goals
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Social Media Is a Great Source of New Hires)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Recruiting the Unemployed)
•
New Case Incident (The End of the Performance Appraisal?)
•
Updated Case Incident (Job Candidates Without Strong SAT Scores Need
Not Apply)
Chapter 18: Organizational Change and Stress Management
•
Entirely new Opening Vignette (Sweet Changes at Cadbury?)
•
New feature: glOBalization!
•
New Myth or Science? (“Men Experience More Job Stress Than Women”)
•
Updated review of research on individual readiness for organizational
change
•
Discussion of maladaptive behavioral response to stress at work
•
Updated discussion of coping strategies
•
Implications of the stress-health relationship
•
New Point–Counterpoint (Responsible Managers Relieve Stress on Their
Employees)
•
New An Ethical Choice (Responsibly Managing Your Own Stress)
•
New Case Incident (Starbucks Returns to Its Roots)
•
Updated Case Incident (The Rise of Extreme Jobs)

28.
xxviii
PREFACE
Teaching and Learning Support
MyManagementLab (www.mymanagementlab.com) is an easy-to-use online
tool that personalizes course content and provides robust assessment and reporting to measure student and class performance. All the resources you need
for course success are in one place—flexible and easily adapted for your course
experience.
Instructor’s Resource Center
At www.pearsonhighered.com/irc, instructors can access a variety of print, digital, and presentation resources available with this text in downloadable format.
Registration is simple and gives you immediate access to new titles and new
editions. As a registered faculty member, you can download resource files and
receive immediate access and instructions for installing course management
content on your campus server.
If you need assistance, our dedicated technical support team is ready to
help with the media supplements that accompany this text. Visit 247pearsoned
.custhelp.com for answers to frequently asked questions and toll-free user
support phone numbers.
The following supplements are available to adopting instructors (for
detailed descriptions, please visit www.pearsonhighered.com/irc):
•
•
•
•
•
Instructor’s Manual—updated and revised to provide ideas and resources in
the classroom.
Test Item File—Revised and updated to include questions that require students to apply the knowledge that they’ve read about in the text through
Learning Objectives and Learning Outcomes. Questions are also tagged to
reflect the AACSB Learning Standards.
TestGen Test Generating Software—Test management software that contains all material from the Test Item File. This software is completely userfriendly and allows instructors to view, edit, and add test questions with just
a few mouse clicks. All of our TestGens are converted for use in Blackboard
and WebCT and are available for download from www.pearsonhighered
.com/irc.
PowerPoint Presentation—A ready-to-use PowerPoint slideshow designed
for classroom presentation. Use it as is, or edit content to fit your individual
classroom needs.
Image Library—includes all the charts, tables, and graphs that are found in
the text.
Videos on DVD
Adopters can access the 48 videos on the 2013 Organizational Behavior Video
Library DVD. These videos have been produced to depict real-world OB issues
and give students a taste of the multi-faceted nature of OB in real companies.
Learning Management Systems
BlackBoard and WebCT Course Cartridges are available for download from
www.pearsonhighered.com/irc. These standard course cartridges contain the
Instructor’s Manual, TestGen, Instructor PowerPoints, and when available, Student PowerPoints and Student Data Files.

29.
PREFACE
xxix
CourseSmart eTextbooks Online
Developed for students looking to save money on required or recommended textbooks, CourseSmart eTextbooks online save students money compared with the
suggested list price of the print text. Students simply select their eText by title
or author and purchase immediate access to the content for the duration of the
course using any major credit card. With CourseSmart eText, students can search
for specific keywords or page numbers, make notes online, print reading assignments that incorporate lecture notes, and bookmark important passages for later
review. For more information, or to purchase a CourseSmart eTextbook, visit
www.coursesmart.com.
Pearson’s Self-Assessment
Library (S.A.L.)
A hallmark of the Robbins series, S.A.L. is a unique learning tool that allows you
to assess your knowledge, beliefs, feelings, and actions in regard to a wide range of
personal skills, abilities, and interests. Self-assessments have been integrated into
each chapter, including a self-assessment at the beginning of each chapter. S.A.L.
helps students better understand their interpersonal and behavioral skills as they
relate to the theoretical concepts presented in each chapter.
Highlights
•
•
•
•
•
•
69 research-based self-assessments—All 69 instruments of our collection are
from sources such as Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, Harvard Business
Review, Organizational Behavior: Experiences and Cases, Journal of Experimental
Education, Journal of Applied Measurement, and more.
Work–life and career focused—All self-assessments are focused to help individuals better manage their work lives or careers. Organized in four parts,
these instruments offer you one source from which to learn more about
yourself.
Choice of formats—The Prentice Hall Self-Assessment Library is available in
CD-ROM, online, or print format.
Save feature—Students can take the self-assessments an unlimited number
of times, and they can save and print their scores for class discussion.
Scoring key—The key to the self-assessments has been edited by Steve
Robbins to allow students to quickly make sense of the results of their score.
Instructor’s manual—An Instructor’s Manual guides instructors in interpreting self-assessments and helps facilitate better classroom discussion.

30.
Acknowledgments
Getting this book into your hands was a team effort. It took faculty reviewers
and a talented group of designers and production specialists, editorial personnel, and marketing and sales staff.
More than one hundred instructors reviewed parts or all of Organizational
Behavior, Fifteenth Edition. Their comments, compliments, and suggestions
have significantly improved the final product. The authors wish to thank John D.
Kammeyer-Mueller of the University of Florida for help with several key aspects
of this revision. The authors would also like to extend their sincerest thanks to
the following instructors:
Lee Boam, University of Utah
Andres Johnson, Santa Clara University
Edward Lisoski, Northeastern University
Douglas Mahony, Lehigh University
Douglas McCabe, Georgetown University
Bradley Norris, Baylor University
Jonelle Roth, Michigan State University
Philip Roth, Clemson University
Dale Rude, University of Houston
Holly Schroth, University of California at
Berkeley
Jody Tolan, University of Southern California
Debra Schneck, Indiana University
Marilyn Wesner, George Washington
University
Over the last editions this text has grown stronger with the contribution and
feedback of the following instructors:
David Abramis, California State University
Chris Adalikwu, Concordia College
Basil Adams, Notre Dame de Namur
University
Janet Adams, Kennesaw State University
Cheryl Adkins, Longwood College
Vicky Aitken, St. Louis Community College
David Albritton, Northern Arizona University
Bradley Alge, Purdue University
Lois Antonen, CSUS
Lucy Arendt, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
Anke Arnaud, University of Central Florida
Mihran Aroian, University of Texas, Austin
Gary Ballinger, Purdue University
Deborah Balser, University of Missouri at
St. Louis
Christopher Barlow, DePaul University
Joy Benson, University of Wisconsin at
Green Bay
Lehman Benson III, University of Arizona
Jacqui Bergman, Appalachian State
University
Anne Berthelot, University of Texas at
El Paso
David Bess, Shidler College of Business at the
University of Hawaii
Bruce Bikle, California State University,
Sacramento
xxx
Richard Blackburn, University of North
Carolina–Chapel Hill
Weldon Blake, Bethune-Cookman College
Carl Blencke, University of Central Florida
Michael Bochenek, Elmhurst College
Alicia Boisnier, State University of New York
William H. Bommer, Cleveland State
University
Bryan Bonner, University of Utah
Jessica Bradley, Clemson University
Dr. Jerry Bream, Empire State College/
Niagara Frontier Center
Jim Breaugh, University of Missouri
Peggy Brewer, Eastern Kentucky University
Deborah Brown, North Carolina State
University
Reginald Bruce, University of Louisville
Jeff Bruns, Bacone College
Pamela Buckle, Adelphi University
Patricia Buhler, Goldey-Beacom College
Allen Bures, Radford University
Edith Busija, University of Richmond
Holly Buttner, University of North Carolina
at Greensboro
Michael Cafferky, Southern Adventist
University
Scott Campbell, Francis Marion University
Elena Capella, University of San Francisco

31.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Don Capener, Monmouth University
Dan Caprar, University of Iowa
David Carmichael, Oklahoma City University
Carol Carnevale, SUNY Empire State College
Donald W. Caudill, Bluefield College
Suzanne Chan, Tulane University
Anthony Chelte, Midwestern State University
Bongsoon Cho, State University of
New York—Buffalo
Savannah Clay, Central Piedmont Community
College
David Connelly, Western Illinois State
University
Jeffrey Conte, San Diego State University
Jane Crabtree, Benedictine University
Suzanne Crampton, Grand Valley State
University
Douglas Crawford, Wilson College
Michael Cruz, San Jose State University
Robert Cyr, Northwestern University
Evelyn Dadzie, Clark Atlanta University
Joseph Daly, Appalachian State University
Denise Daniels, Seattle Pacific University
Marie Dasborough, Oklahoma State
University
Nancy Da Silva, San Jose State University
Christine Day, Eastern Michigan University
Emmeline de Pillis, University of Hawaii, Hilo
Kathy Lund Dean, Idaho State University
Roger Dean, Washington & Lee University
Robert DelCampo, University of New Mexico
Kristen Detienne, Brigham Young University
Doug Dierking, University of Texas at Austin
Cynthia Doil, Southern Illinois University
Jennifer Dose, Messiah College
Ceasar Douglas, Florida State University
David Duby, Liberty University
Ken Dunegan, Cleveland State University
Michael Dutch, Greensboro College
Kathleen Edwards, University of Texas at
Austin
Berrin Erdogan, Portland State University
Ellen Fagenson Eland, George Mason
University
Lenny Favara, Central Christian College
Claudia Ferrante, U.S. Air Force Academy
Andy Fitorre, Nyack College
Kathleen Fleming, Averett University
Erin Fluegge, University of Florida
Edward Fox, Wilkes University
Alison Fragale, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Lucy Franks, Bellevue University
Dean Frear, Wilkes University
xxxi
Jann Freed, Central College
Crissie Frye, Eastern Michigan University
Diane Galbraith, Slippery Rock University
Carolyn Gardner, Radford University
Janice Gates, Western Illinois University
Ellen Kaye Gehrke, Alliant International
University
James Gelatt, University of Maryland
University College
Joe Gerard, University of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee
Matthew Giblin, Southern Illinois University
Donald Gibson, Fairfield University
Cindi Gilliland, The University of Arizona
Mary Giovannini, Truman State University
David Glew, University of North Carolina at
Wilmington
Leonard Glick, Northeastern University
Reginald Goodfellow, California State
University
Jeffrey Goldstein, Adelphi University
Jodi Goodman, University of Connecticut
Claude Graeff, Illinois State University
Richard Grover, University of Southern Maine
W. Lee Grubb III, East Carolina University
John Guarino, Averett University
Rebecca Guidice, University of Nevada
at Las Vegas
Andra Gumbus, Sacred Heart University
Linda Hackleman, Concordia University
Austin
Deniz Hackner, Tidewater Community
College
Michael Hadani, Long Island University
Jonathon Halbesleben, University of
Missouri-Columbia
Dan Hallock, University of North Alabama
Tracey Rockett Hanft, University of Texas
at Dallas
Edward Hampton, University of Central
Florida
Vernard Harrington, Radford University
Nell Hartley, Robert Morris University
Barbara Hassell, Indiana University, Kelley
School of Business
Erin Hayes, George Washington University
Tom Head, Roosevelt University
Douglas Heeter, Ferris State University
David Henderson, University of Illinois
at Chicago
Scott Henley, Oklahoma City University
Ted Herbert, Rollins College
Susan Herman, University of Alaska Fairbanks
James Hess, Ivy Tech Community College
Ronald Hester, Marymount University

32.
xxxii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Patricia Hewlin, Georgetown University
Chad Higgins, University of Washington
Kim Hinrichs, Minnesota State University
Mankato
Kathie Holland, University of Central Florida
Elaine Hollensbe, University of Cincinnati
Kristin Holmberg-Wright, University of
Wisconsin at Parkside
Brooks Holtom, Georgetown University
Lisa Houts, California State University
Fullerton
Abigail Hubbard, University of Houston
Paul Hudec, Milwaukee School of Engineering
Stephen Humphrey, Florida State University
Charlice Hurst, University of Florida
Warren Imada, Leeward Community College
Gazi Islam, Tulane University
Alan Jackson, Peru State College
Christine Jackson, Purdue University
Marsha Jackson, Bowie State University
Kathryn Jacobson, Arizona State University
Paul Jacques, Western Carolina University
David Jalajas, Long Island University
Elizabeth Jamison, Radford University
Stephen Jenner, California State University,
Dominguez Hills
John Jermier, University of South Florida
Jack Johnson, Consumnes River College
Michael Johnson, University of Washington
David Jones, South University
Ray Jones, University of Pittsburgh
Anthony Jost, University of Delaware
Louis Jourdan, Clayton College
Rusty Juban, Southeastern Illinois University
Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Louisiana State
University
John Kammeyer-Mueller, University
of Florida
Edward Kass, Saint Joseph’s University
Marsha Katz, Governors State College
James Katzenstein, California State University
John Keiser, SUNY College at Brockport
Mark Kendrick, Methodist University
Mary Kern, Baruch College
Robert Key, University of Phoenix
Sigrid Khorram, University of Texas at
El Paso
Hal Kingsley, Erie Community College
Jeffrey Kobles, California State University
San Marcos
Jack Kondrasuk, University of Portland
Leslie A. Korb, University of Nebraska at
Kearney
Glen Kreiner, University of Cincinnati
James Kroeger, Cleveland State University
Frederick Lane, Baruch College
Rebecca Lau, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University
David Leuser, Plymouth State College
Julia Levashina, Indiana State University
Kokomo
Benyamin Lichtenstein, University of
Massachusetts at Boston
Robert Liden, University of Illinois at Chicago
Don Lifton, Ithaca College
Ginamarie Ligon, Villanova University
Beth Livingston, University of Florida
Barbara Low, Dominican University
Doyle Lucas, Anderson University
Alexandra Luong, University of Minnesota
Rick Maclin, Missouri Baptist University
Peter Madsen, Brigham Young University
Lou Marino, University of Alabama
Catherine Marsh, Northpark University
J. David Martin, Midwestern State University
Timothy A. Matherly, Florida State University
John Mattoon, State University of New York
Paul Maxwell, Saint Thomas University
Brenda McAleer, University of Maine at
Augusta
Christina McCale, Regis College
Don McCormick, California State University
Northridge
James McElroy, Iowa State University
Bonnie McNeely, Murray State University
Melony Mead, University of Phoenix
Steven Meisel, La Salle University
Nancy Meyer-Emerick, Cleveland State
University
Catherine Michael, St. Edwards University
Sandy Miles, Murray State University
Janice Miller, University of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee
Leann Mischel, Susquehanna University
Atul Mitra, University of Northern Iowa
Linda Morable, Richland College
Paula Morrow, Iowa State University
Mark Mortensen, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
Lori Muse, Western Michigan University
Padmakumar Nair, University of Texas at
Dallas
Judy Nixon, University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga
Jeffrey Nystrom, University of Colorado at
Denver
Alison O’Brien, George Mason University
Heather Odle-Dusseau, Clemson University
Miguel Olivas-Lujan, Lujan Clarion University

33.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Kelly Ottman, University of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee
Cynthia Ozeki, California State University,
Dominguez Hills
Peg Padgett, Butler University
Jennifer Palthe, Western Michigan University
Dennis Passovoy, University of Texas at
Austin
Karen Paul, Florida International University
Laura Finnerty Paul, Skidmore College
Anette Pendergrass, Arkansas State
University at Mountain Home
Bryan Pesta, Cleveland State University
Jeff Peterson, University of Washington
Nanette Philibert, Missouri Southern
State University
Larry Phillips, Indiana University South Bend
William Pinchuk, Rutgers University at
Camden
Eric Popkoff, Brooklyn College
Paul Preston, University of Montevallo
Scott Quatro, Grand Canyon University
Aarti Ramaswami, Indiana University
Bloomington
Jere Ramsey, Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo
Amy Randel, San Diego State University
Anne Reilly, Loyola University Chicago
Clint Relyea, Arkansas State University
Herbert Ricardo, Indian River Community
College
David Ritchey, University of Texas at Dallas
Chris Roberts, University of Massachusetts
Amherst
Sherry Robinson, Pennsylvania State
University Hazleton
Christopher Ann Robinson-Easley,
Governors State University
Joe Rode, Miami University
Bob Roller, LeTourneau University
Andrea Roofe, Florida International
University
Craig Russell, University of Oklahoma at
Norman
Manjula Salimath, University of North Texas
Mary Saunders, Georgia Gwinnett College
Andy Schaffer, North Georgia College and
State University
Elizabeth Scott, Elizabeth City University
Mark Seabright, Western Oregon University
Joseph Seltzer, LaSalle University
John Shaw, Mississippi State University
John Sherlock, Western Carolina University
Daniel Sherman, University of Alabama,
Huntsville
Heather Shields, Texas Tech University
xxxiii
Ted Shore, California State University at
Long Beach
Stuart Sidle, University of New Haven
Bret Simmons, University of Nevada Reno
Randy Sleeth, Virginia Commonwealth
University
William Smith, Emporia State University
Kenneth Solano, Northeastern University
Shane Spiller, Morehead State University
Lynda St. Clair, Bryant University
John B. Stark, California State University,
Bakersfield
Merwyn Strate, Purdue University
Joo-Seng Tan, Cornell University
Karen Thompson, Sonoma State University
Linda Tibbetts, Antioch University
McGregor
Ed Tomlinson, John Carroll University
Bob Trodella, Webster University
Tom Tudor, University of Arkansas at Little
Rock
William D. Tudor, Ohio State University
Daniel Turban, University of Missouri
Albert Turner, Webster University
Jim Turner, Morehead State University
Leslie Tworoger, Nova Southeastern
University
M. A. Viets, University of Vermont
Roger Volkema, American University
William Walker, University of Houston
Ian Walsh, Boston College
Charles F. Warren, Salem State College
Christa Washington, Saint Augustine’s
College
Jim Westerman, Appalachian State University
William J. White, Northwestern University
David Whitlock, Southwest Baptist University
Dan Wiljanen, Grand Valley State University
Dean Williamson, Brewton-Parker College
Hilda Williamson, Hampton University
Alice Wilson, Cedar Crest College
Barry Wisdom, Southeast Missouri State
University
Craig Wishart, Fayetteville State University
Laura Wolfe, Louisiana State University
Melody Wollan, Eastern Illinois University
Evan Wood, Taylor University Fort Wayne
Chun-Sheng Yu, University of HoustonVictoria
Jun Zhao, Governors State University
Lori Ziegler, University of Texas at Dallas
Mary Ellen Zuckerman, State University
of New York at Geneseo
Gail Zwart, Riverside Community College

34.
xxxiv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We owe a debt of gratitude to all those at Pearson Education who have supported this text over the past 30 years and who have worked so hard on the development of this latest edition. On the development and editorial side, we want
to thank Elisa Adams, Development Editor; Steve Deitmer, Director of Development; Ashley Santora, Director of Editorial Services; Brian Mickelson, Acquisitions Editor; and Sally Yagan, Editorial Director. On the design and production
side, Judy Leale, Senior Managing Editor, did an outstanding job, as did Becca
Groves, Production Project Manager, and Nancy Moudry, Photo Development
Editor. Last but not least, we would like to thank Nikki Ayana Jones, Senior
Marketing Manager; Patrice Lumumba Jones, Vice President Director of Marketing; and their sales staff, who have been selling this book over its many editions.
Thank you for the attention you’ve given to this book.

36.
THE NEW NORMAL?
S
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter,
you should be able to:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Demonstrate the
importance of interpersonal
skills in the workplace.
Describe the manager’s
functions, roles, and skills.
Define organizational
behavior (OB).
Show the value to OB of
systematic study.
Identify the major
behavioral science
disciplines that contribute
to OB.
Demonstrate why few
absolutes apply to OB.
Identify the challenges and
opportunities managers
have in applying OB
concepts.
Compare the three levels
of analysis in this book’s
OB model.
MyManagementLab
Access a host of interactive
learning aids to help strengthen
your understanding of the
chapter concepts at
www.mymanagementlab.com
cott Nicholson sits alone in his parents’ house in suburban Boston. His
parents have long since left for work. He lifts his laptop from a small
table on which his mother used to have a vase with flowers. This day will
be like tomorrow, and tomorrow will be like today.
On his laptop, Scott searches corporate Web sites for job openings.
Today, he finds one, and he mails off a résumé and cover letter. It’s a routine he repeats nearly every day, applying to four to five jobs a week, week
after week.
Despite graduating from Colgate University with a 4.0 GPA, Scott has
been job-hunting for 5 months. His myriad applications have produced only
one offer: A $40,000-a-year job as an associate claims adjuster at Hanover
Insurance Group in Worcester. He turned the offer down. “The conversation
I’m going to have with my parents now that I’ve turned down this job is more
of a concern to me than turning down the job,” Scott said.
Why is Scott more concerned with his parents’ reaction than he is with
finding a job? To some degree, this is a reflection of the job offer (too low
a salary, too small a company, too limited a job description). However, it
also suggests a generational shift in thinking. While the job market for new
entrants is perhaps the most sluggish in memory, new college graduates
remain committed to following their dreams and holding out high hopes for
their careers.
Scott’s father, David Nicholson, 57, has an established managerial career,
with a household income of $175,000/year. Early in his career, David said,
he was less concerned with starting off with the right job than his son is
now. “You maneuvered and you did not worry what the maneuvering would
lead to,” David said. “You know it would lead to something good.” Scott’s
grandfather, William Nicholson, a retired stock broker, has even more trouble understanding Scott’s travails. “I view what is happening to Scott with
dismay,” the grandfather said. Despite feeling pressure from his parents to
find a job (“I am beginning to realize that refusal is going to have repercussions”), Scott remains undaunted: “I am absolutely certain that my job hunt
will eventually pay off.”
Scott is not alone. In the past 5 years, millions of U.S. workers have lost
their jobs, and millions of new entrants—many of them, like Scott, under 30—
have had trouble finding suitable work.
Sources: L. Uchitelle, “A New Generation, an Elusive American Dream” New York Times (July 7, 2010),
pp. A1, A11; B. Levin, “Sending Out an S.O.S.: Who Will Give This a Handout/Job?” Dealbreaker
(July 7, 2010), http://dealbreaker.com/tag/scott-nicholson/.
2

37.
What Is
Organizational
Behavior?
1
Photo: Scott Nicholson. Source: Matthew Cavanaugh/The New York Times/Redux Pictures
The stellar universe is not so difficult
of comprehension as the real actions
of other people. —Marcel Proust
3

38.
4
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
T
he details of this story might be disheartening to read, but they accurately
reflect some of the problems faced by the contemporary workforce. The
story also highlights several issues of interest to organizational behavior
researchers, including motivation, emotions, personality, and communication.
Through the course of this book, you’ll learn how all these elements can be
studied systematically.
You’ve probably made many observations about people’s behavior in your
life. In a way, you are already proficient at seeing some of the major themes in
organizational behavior. At the same time, you probably have not had the tools
to make these observations systematically. This is where organizational behavior
comes into play. And, as we’ll learn, it is much more than common sense, intuition, and soothsaying.
To see how far common sense gets you, try the following from the SelfAssessment Library.
S A
L
SELF-ASSESSMENT LIBRARY
How Much Do I Know About Organizational Behavior?
In the Self-Assessment Library (available on CD and online), take assessment IV.G.1
(How Much Do I Know About OB?) and answer the following questions:
1. How did you score? Are you surprised by your score?
2. How much of effective management do you think is common sense? Did
your score on the test change your answer to this question?
The Importance of Interpersonal Skills
1
Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills
in the workplace.
Until the late 1980s, business school curricula emphasized the technical aspects
of management, focusing on economics, accounting, finance, and quantitative
techniques. Course work in human behavior and people skills received relatively less attention. Over the past three decades, however, business faculty have
come to realize the role that understanding human behavior plays in determining a manager’s effectiveness, and required courses on people skills have been
added to many curricula. As the director of leadership at MIT’s Sloan School of
Management put it, “M.B.A. students may get by on their technical and quantitative skills the first couple of years out of school. But soon, leadership and
communication skills come to the fore in distinguishing the managers whose
careers really take off.”1
Developing managers’ interpersonal skills also helps organizations attract
and keep high-performing employees. Regardless of labor market conditions,
outstanding employees are always in short supply.2 Companies known as good
places to work—such as Starbucks, Adobe Systems, Cisco, Whole Foods, Google,
American Express, Amgen, Pfizer, and Marriott—have a big advantage. A recent
survey of hundreds of workplaces, and more than 200,000 respondents, showed
the social relationships among co-workers and supervisors were strongly related
to overall job satisfaction. Positive social relationships also were associated with
lower stress at work and lower intentions to quit.3 So having managers with good
interpersonal skills is likely to make the workplace more pleasant, which in turn
makes it easier to hire and keep qualified people. Creating a pleasant workplace also appears to make good economic sense. Companies with reputations

39.
What Managers Do
5
Source: China Photos / Getty Images, Inc.
Succeeding in management today
requires good interpersonal skills.
Communication and leadership
skills distinguish managers such as
John Chambers, who rise to the
top of their profession. Chambers
is CEO of Cisco Systems, the world’s
largest maker of networking equipment. He is respected as a visionary
leader and innovator who has the
ability to drive an entrepreneurial
culture. As an effective communicator, Chambers is described as warmhearted and straight talking. In this
photo Chambers speaks during a
launch ceremony of a green technology partnership Cisco formed
with a university in China.
as good places to work (such as Forbes’ “100 Best Companies to Work For in
America”) have been found to generate superior financial performance.4
We have come to understand that in today’s competitive and demanding
workplace, managers can’t succeed on their technical skills alone. They also
have to have good people skills. This book has been written to help both managers and potential managers develop those people skills.
What Managers Do
2
Describe the manager’s
functions, roles, and skills.
MyManagementLab
For an interactive application of this
topic, check out this chapter’s
simulation activity at
www.mymanagementlab.com.
manager An individual who achieves
goals through other people.
Let’s begin by briefly defining the terms manager and organization—the place
where managers work. Then let’s look at the manager’s job; specifically, what
do managers do?
Managers get things done through other people. They make decisions,
allocate resources, and direct the activities of others to attain goals. Managers
do their work in an organization, which is a consciously coordinated social
unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. By this definition, manufacturing and service firms are organizations, and so are schools, hospitals,
churches, military units, retail stores, police departments, and local, state,
and federal government agencies. The people who oversee the activities of
organization A consciously
coordinated social unit, composed of
two or more people, that functions on
a relatively continuous basis to achieve
a common goal or set of goals.

40.
6
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
others and who are responsible for attaining goals in these organizations
are managers (sometimes called administrators, especially in not-for-profit
organizations).
Management Functions
In the early part of the twentieth century, French industrialist Henri Fayol wrote
that all managers perform five management functions: planning, organizing,
commanding, coordinating, and controlling.5 Today, we have condensed these
to four: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Because organizations exist to achieve goals, someone has to define those
goals and the means for achieving them; management is that someone. The
planning function encompasses defining an organization’s goals, establishing
an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and coordinate activities. Evidence indicates this
function increases the most as managers move from lower-level to mid-level
management.6
Managers are also responsible for designing an organization’s structure. We
call this function organizing. It includes determining what tasks are to be done,
who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and
where decisions are to be made.
Every organization contains people, and it is management’s job to direct and
coordinate those people. This is the leading function. When managers motivate
employees, direct their activities, select the most effective communication channels, or resolve conflicts among members, they’re engaging in leading.
To ensure things are going as they should, management must monitor the
organization’s performance and compare it with previously set goals. If there are
any significant deviations, it is management’s job to get the organization back on
track. This monitoring, comparing, and potential correcting is the controlling
function.
So, using the functional approach, the answer to the question “What do
managers do?” is that they plan, organize, lead, and control.
Management Roles
In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg, then a graduate student at MIT, undertook a careful study of five executives to determine what they did on their
jobs. On the basis of his observations, Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten different, highly interrelated roles—or sets of behaviors.7 As shown in
Exhibit 1-1, these ten roles are primarily (1) interpersonal, (2) informational,
or (3) decisional.
Interpersonal Roles All managers are required to perform duties that are
ceremonial and symbolic in nature. For instance, when the president of a
college hands out diplomas at commencement or a factory supervisor gives a
group of high school students a tour of the plant, he or she is acting in a figurehead role. All managers also have a leadership role. This role includes hiring,
training, motivating, and disciplining employees. The third role within the
interpersonal grouping is the liaison role, or contacting others who provide
the manager with information. The sales manager who obtains information
from the quality-control manager in his or her own company has an internal
liaison relationship. When that sales manager has contacts with other sales
executives through a marketing trade association, he or she has an outside
liaison relationship.

42.
8
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
managers are responsible for allocating human, physical, and monetary resources. Finally, managers perform a negotiator role, in which they discuss issues
and bargain with other units to gain advantages for their own unit.
Management Skills
Still another way of considering what managers do is to look at the skills or
competencies they need to achieve their goals. Researchers have identified a
number of skills that differentiate effective from ineffective managers.8
Technical Skills Technical skills encompass the ability to apply specialized
knowledge or expertise. When you think of the skills of professionals such as civil
engineers or oral surgeons, you typically focus on the technical skills they have
learned through extensive formal education. Of course, professionals don’t have
a monopoly on technical skills, and not all technical skills have to be learned
in schools or other formal training programs. All jobs require some specialized
expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job.
Human Skills The ability to understand, communicate with, motivate,
and support other people, both individually and in groups, defines human skills. Many people are technically proficient but poor listeners, unable to understand the needs of others, or weak at managing conflicts.
Because managers get things done through other people, they must have
good human skills.
Conceptual Skills Managers must have the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations. These tasks require conceptual skills. Decision making, for instance, requires managers to identify problems, develop alternative
solutions to correct those problems, evaluate those alternative solutions, and
select the best one. After they have selected a course of action, managers must
be able to organize a plan of action and then execute it. The ability to integrate
new ideas with existing processes and innovate on the job are also crucial conceptual skills for today’s managers.
Effective versus Successful Managerial Activities
Fred Luthans and his associates looked at what managers do from a somewhat
different perspective.9 They asked, “Do managers who move up the quickest in an
organization do the same activities and with the same emphasis as managers who
do the best job?” You might think the answer is yes, but that’s not always the case.
Luthans and his associates studied more than 450 managers. All engaged in
four managerial activities:
1. Traditional management. Decision making, planning, and controlling.
2. Communication. Exchanging routine information and processing
paperwork.
3. Human resource management. Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing, and training.
4. Networking. Socializing, politicking, and interacting with outsiders.
The “average” manager spent 32 percent of his or her time in traditional
management activities, 29 percent communicating, 20 percent in human
resource management activities, and 19 percent networking. However, the time
and effort different individual managers spent on those activities varied a great
deal. As shown in Exhibit 1-2, among managers who were successful (defined
in terms of speed of promotion within their organization), networking made

43.
What Managers Do
Exhibit 1-2
Allocation of Activities by Time
Average
managers
Successful
managers
Effective
managers
11%
13%
19%
32%
48%
20%
9
29%
28%
19%
26%
44%
11%
Traditional management
Communication
Human resource management
Networking
Source: Based on F. Luthans, R. M. Hodgetts, and S. A. Rosenkrantz, Real Managers (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1988).
the largest relative contribution to success, and human resource management activities made the least relative contribution. Among effective managers (defined in terms of quantity and quality of their performance and the
satisfaction and commitment of employees), communication made the largest
relative contribution and networking the least. More recent studies in Australia,
Israel, Italy, Japan, and the United States confirm the link between networking and social relationships and success within an organization.10 And the connection between communication and effective managers is also clear. A study
of 410 U.S. managers indicates those who seek information from colleagues
and employees—even if it’s negative—and who explain their decisions are the
most effective.11
This research offers important insights. Successful managers give almost
the opposite emphases to traditional management, communication, human
resource management, and networking as do effective managers. This finding challenges the historical assumption that promotions are based on performance, and it illustrates the importance of networking and political skills in
getting ahead in organizations.
A Review of the Manager’s Job
One common thread runs through the functions, roles, skills, activities, and
approaches to management: Each recognizes the paramount importance of
managing people, whether it is called “the leading function,” “interpersonal
roles,” “human skills,” or “human resource management, communication, and
networking activities.” It’s clear managers must develop their people skills to be
effective and successful.
technical skills The ability to apply
specialized knowledge or expertise.
human skills The ability to work
conceptual skills The mental ability
with, understand, and motivate other
people, both individually and in
groups.
to analyze and diagnose complex
situations.

44.
10
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
Enter Organizational Behavior
Define organizational
behavior (OB).
Online shoe retailer Zappos.com
understands how organizational
behavior affects an organization’s
performance. Zappos maintains
good employee relationships by
providing generous benefits, extensive customer service training, and
a positive, fun-loving work environment. Employees are empowered
to make decisions that increase customer satisfaction and are encouraged to create fun and a little
weirdness.” At Zappos, employee
loyalty, job satisfaction, and productivity are high, contributing to the
company’s growth. In this photo,
employees view a line of shoes in
one of the company’s quirky offices.
We’ve made the case for the importance of people skills. But neither this book
nor the discipline on which it is based is called “people skills.” The term that is
widely used to describe the discipline is organizational behavior.
Organizational behavior (often abbreviated OB) is a field of study that
investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward
improving an organization’s effectiveness. That’s a mouthful, so let’s break
it down.
Organizational behavior is a field of study, meaning that it is a distinct area
of expertise with a common body of knowledge. What does it study? It studies
three determinants of behavior in organizations: individuals, groups, and structure. In addition, OB applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups,
and the effect of structure on behavior in order to make organizations work
more effectively.
To sum up our definition, OB is the study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects the organization’s performance. And
because OB is concerned specifically with employment-related situations, you
should not be surprised that it emphasizes behavior as related to concerns
such as jobs, work, absenteeism, employment turnover, productivity, human
performance, and management.
Although debate exists about the relative importance of each, OB includes the core topics of motivation, leader behavior and power, interpersonal communication, group structure and processes, learning, attitude
development and perception, change processes, conflict, work design, and
work stress.12
Source: Isaac Brekken/The New York Times/Redux Pictures
3

45.
Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study
11
Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study
4
Show the value to OB
of systematic study.
organizational behavior (OB) A field
of study that investigates the impact
that individuals, groups, and structure
have on behavior within organizations,
for the purpose of applying such
knowledge toward improving an
organization’s effectiveness.
Each of us is a student of behavior. Whether you’ve explicitly thought about it
before, you’ve been “reading” people almost all your life, watching their actions
and trying to interpret what you see or predict what people might do under
different conditions. Unfortunately, the casual or common sense approach to
reading others can often lead to erroneous predictions. However, you can improve your predictive ability by supplementing intuition with a more systematic
approach.
The systematic approach in this book will uncover important facts and
relationships and provide a base from which to make more accurate predictions
of behavior. Underlying this systematic approach is the belief that behavior is
not random. Rather, we can identify fundamental consistencies underlying the
behavior of all individuals and modify them to reflect individual differences.
These fundamental consistencies are very important. Why? Because they
allow predictability. Behavior is generally predictable, and the systematic study
of behavior is a means to making reasonably accurate predictions. When we
use the term systematic study, we mean looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and basing our conclusions on scientific
evidence—that is, on data gathered under controlled conditions and measured and interpreted in a reasonably rigorous manner. (See Appendix A for
a basic review of research methods used in studies of organizational behavior.)
Evidence-based management (EBM) complements systematic study by basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence. For example,
we want doctors to make decisions about patient care based on the latest available evidence, and EBM argues that managers should do the same, becoming
more scientific in how they think about management problems. A manager
might pose a managerial question, search for the best available evidence, and
apply the relevant information to the question or case at hand. You might think
it difficult to argue against this (what manager would say decisions shouldn’t
be based on evidence?), but the vast majority of management decisions are still
made “on the fly,” with little or systematic study of available evidence.13
Systematic study and EBM add to intuition, or those “gut feelings” about
what makes others (and ourselves) “tick.” Of course, the things you have come
to believe in an unsystematic way are not necessarily incorrect. Jack Welch (former CEO of GE) noted, “The trick, of course, is to know when to go with your
gut.” But if we make all decisions with intuition or gut instinct, we’re likely
working with incomplete information—like making an investment decision
with only half the data.
Relying on intuition is made worse because we tend to overestimate the
accuracy of what we think we know. In a recent survey, 86 percent of managers
thought their organization was treating their employees well, but only 55 percent
of the employees thought so. Surveys of human resource managers have also
systematic study Looking at
relationships, attempting to attribute
causes and effects, and drawing
conclusions based on scientific
evidence.
evidence-based management
(EBM) The basing of managerial
decisions on the best available
scientific evidence.
intuition A gut feeling not necessarily
supported by research.

46.
CHAPTER 1
12
What Is Organizational Behavior?
Myth or Science?
“Most Acts of Workplace Bullying
Are Men Attacking Women”
T
his statement is true in the broad
sense that most research indicates men are more likely to
engage in workplace bullying, and
women are more likely to be targets of
bullying behavior.
However, the full picture of gender
and workplace bullying is more complicated than that.
First, the gender differences are narrowing. A recent study of workplace
bullying by the Workplace Bullying
Institute (WBI) suggested that 60 percent of workplace bullies are men and
40 percent are women. That is still a significant gender difference. But it is not
as large as was once the case. Some of
the narrowing in the gender of bullies
is due to the ascension of women up
their organizations’ ladders. Evidence
indicates that the vast majority of incidents of workplace bullying are “topdown”: the supervisor is intimidating
the subordinate. As more women are
becoming supervisors, this is changing,
to some degree, the gender balance of
workplace bullies.
A second complication is that when
women bully others at work, other
women are overwhelmingly their targets. The same WBI study of workplace bullying revealed that 58 percent
of victims of bullying are women.
However, almost all of this gender difference in victims is due to who women
bullies target; in 80 percent of the cases,
it was other women. Male bullies are actually more likely to target their own sex,
though to a less dramatic degree than
female bullies do.
Finally, it does appear that women
are more adversely affected by bullying.
A recent study of 183 victims of bullying found that the prevalence of trauma
was higher for women (49 percent)
than men (35 percent). The complexity
of these relationships shows us that
gaining a true understanding of organizational behavior phenomena often
means understanding that the causes
and consequences of work behavior are
complex.
Back to bullying, experts suggest
some ways to cope with workplace
bullies regardless of your sex.
1. Talk to your bully. “Perhaps your
boss is one of those people who
aren’t aware of how they come
across,” says Stanford’s Robert
Sutton, author of several books on
bullying in the workplace.
2. Get help. Keep a diary of the behavior. Be specific and focus more on
actions than feelings. At some point,
it might be necessary to involve
others, such as human resources.
3. Ignore it. This is often easier said
than done, but sometimes the only
thing you can do is to try to ignore
the bully. “Try not to let it touch
your soul,” says Sutton.
4. Polish your résumé. Bullies sometimes go away, and sometimes
they listen. But if they aren’t going
to change and aren’t going away,
you may want to plan your exit
strategy. Take your time and don’t
panic. But not every workplace is
filled with bullies, and you’ll likely
be happier if you’re in one of those.
Source: L. Petrecca, “Bullying in Workplace
Is Common, Hard to Fix, USA Today (De”
cember 28, 2010), pp. 1B–2B; R. I. Sutton,
Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the
Best ... and Learn from the Worst (New
York: Business Plus, 2010); A. RodríguezMuñoz, B. Moreno-Jiménez, A. Vergel, and
E. G. Hernández, “Post-Traumatic Symptoms
Among Victims of Workplace Bullying:
Exploring Gender Differences and Shattered
Assumptions, Journal of Applied Social
”
Psychology 40, no. 10 (2010), pp. 2616–2635.
shown many managers hold “common sense” opinions regarding effective management that have been flatly refuted by empirical evidence.
We find a similar problem in chasing the business and popular media for
management wisdom. The business press tends to be dominated by fads. As a
writer for The New Yorker put it, “Every few years, new companies succeed, and
they are scrutinized for the underlying truths they might reveal. But often there
is no underlying truth; the companies just happened to be in the right place at
the right time.”14 Although we try to avoid it, we might also fall into this trap.
It’s not that the business press stories are all wrong; it’s that without a systematic
approach, it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
We’re not advising that you throw your intuition, or all the business
press, out the window. Nor are we arguing that research is always right.

47.
Disciplines That Contribute to the OB Field
13
Researchers make mistakes, too. What we are advising is to use evidence
as much as possible to inform your intuition and experience. That is the
promise of OB.
Disciplines That Contribute to the OB Field
5
Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that
contribute to OB.
Organizational behavior is an applied behavioral science built on contributions
from a number of behavioral disciplines, mainly psychology and social psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Psychology’s contributions have been mainly
at the individual or micro level of analysis, while the other disciplines have contributed to our understanding of macro concepts such as group processes and
organization. Exhibit 1-3 is an overview of the major contributions to the study of
organizational behavior.
Exhibit 1-3
Behavioral
science
Psychology
Social psychology
Toward an OB Discipline
Contribution
Learning
Motivation
Personality
Emotions
Perception
Training
Leadership effectiveness
Job satisfaction
Individual decision making
Performance appraisal
Attitude measurement
Employee selection
Work design
Work stress
Output
Individual
Behavioral change
Attitude change
Communication
Group processes
Group decision making
Communication
Power
Conflict
Intergroup behavior
Sociology
Unit of
analysis
Group
Formal organization theory
Organizational technology
Organizational change
Organizational culture
Comparative values
Comparative attitudes
Cross-cultural analysis
Anthropology
Organizational culture
Organizational environment
Power
Organization
system
Study of
organizational
behavior

48.
14
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
Psychology
Psychology seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of
humans and other animals. Those who have contributed and continue to add
to the knowledge of OB are learning theorists, personality theorists, counseling
psychologists, and, most important, industrial and organizational psychologists.
Early industrial/organizational psychologists studied the problems of
fatigue, boredom, and other working conditions that could impede efficient work performance. More recently, their contributions have expanded
to include learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership
effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction, decision-making
processes, performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee-selection
techniques, work design, and job stress.
Social Psychology
Social psychology, generally considered a branch of psychology, blends concepts from both psychology and sociology to focus on peoples’ influence on
one another. One major study area is change—how to implement it and how to
reduce barriers to its acceptance. Social psychologists also contribute to measuring, understanding, and changing attitudes; identifying communication patterns; and building trust. Finally, they have made important contributions to
our study of group behavior, power, and conflict.
Sociology
While psychology focuses on the individual, sociology studies people in relation to their social environment or culture. Sociologists have contributed to OB
through their study of group behavior in organizations, particularly formal and
complex organizations. Perhaps most important, sociologists have studied organizational culture, formal organization theory and structure, organizational
technology, communications, power, and conflict.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their
activities. Anthropologists’ work on cultures and environments has helped us
understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior between
people in different countries and within different organizations. Much of our
current understanding of organizational culture, organizational environments,
and differences among national cultures is a result of the work of anthropologists or those using their methods.
There Are Few Absolutes in OB
6
Demonstrate why few
absolutes apply to OB.
Laws in the physical sciences—chemistry, astronomy, physics—are consistent and
apply in a wide range of situations. They allow scientists to generalize about the
pull of gravity or to be confident about sending astronauts into space to repair
satellites. But as a noted behavioral researcher observed, “God gave all the easy
problems to the physicists.” Human beings are complex, and few, if any, simple
and universal principles explain organizational behavior. Because we are not
alike, our ability to make simple, accurate, and sweeping generalizations is limited.

49.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
15
Two people often act very differently in the same situation, and the same person’s
behavior changes in different situations. Not everyone is motivated by money, and
people may behave differently at a religious service than they do at a party.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that we can’t offer reasonably accurate explanations of human behavior or make valid predictions. It does mean that
OB concepts must reflect situational, or contingency, conditions. We can say x
leads to y, but only under conditions specified in z—the contingency variables.
The science of OB was developed by applying general concepts to a particular
situation, person, or group. For example, OB scholars would avoid stating that
everyone likes complex and challenging work (the general concept). Why?
Because not everyone wants a challenging job. Some people prefer routine
over varied, or simple over complex. A job attractive to one person may not be
to another; its appeal is contingent on the person who holds it.
As you proceed through this book, you’ll encounter a wealth of researchbased theories about how people behave in organizations. But don’t expect to
find a lot of straightforward cause-and-effect relationships. There aren’t many!
organizational behavior theories mirror the subject matter with which they
deal, and people are complex and complicated.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
7
Identify the challenges and
opportunities managers have
in applying OB concepts.
Understanding organizational behavior has never been more important for
managers. Take a quick look at the dramatic changes in organizations. The
typical employee is getting older; more women and people of color are in the
workplace; corporate downsizing and the heavy use of temporary workers are
severing the bonds of loyalty that tied many employees to their employers;
global competition requires employees to become more flexible and cope with
rapid change. The global recession has brought to the forefront the challenges
of working with and managing people during uncertain times.
In short, today’s challenges bring opportunities for managers to use OB concepts. In this section, we review some of the most critical issues confronting managers for which OB offers solutions—or at least meaningful insights toward solutions.
Responding to Economic Pressures
When the U.S. economy plunged into a deep and prolonged recession in 2008,
virtually all other large economies around the world followed suit. Layoffs and
job losses were widespread, and those who survived the ax were often asked to
accept pay cuts.
During difficult economic times, effective management is often at a premium.
Anybody can run a company when business is booming, because the difference
psychology The science that seeks
to measure, explain, and sometimes
change the behavior of humans and
other animals.
social psychology An area of
psychology that blends concepts
from psychology and sociology and
that focuses on the influence of people
on one another.
sociology The study of people in
relation to their social environment
or culture.
anthropology The study of societies
to learn about human beings and their
activities.
contingency variables Situational
factors: variables that moderate the
relationship between two or more
variables.

50.
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CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
OB Poll
Working in Good Times—and Bad
“Thinking about the job situation in America today, would you say that it is now a
good time or a bad time to find a quality job?”
100
90
Bad
80
89
86
8
2010
11
Good
86
69
70
60
59
57
54
48
50
40
30
39
38
41
47
20
26
20
10
0
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2011
Source: Gallup tracking polls of random samples of roughly 1,000 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., selected using
random-digit telephone sampling. See F. Newport, “Americans’ Views of Job Market Improve; Still Mostly Negative” (April 18, 2011),
www.gallup.com.
between good and bad management reflects the difference between making a lot
of money and making a lot more money. When times are bad, though, managers are on the front lines with employees who must be fired, who are asked to
make do with less, and who worry about their futures. The difference between
good and bad management can be the difference between profit and loss or, ultimately, between survival and failure.
Consider Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The company prided itself on never having laid off a U.S. employee in its 51-year history. Even in the 2001–2002 recession after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Enterprise kept hiring. In 2008–2009,
however, Enterprise was forced to lay off more than a thousand employees.
“These types of declines are unprecedented,” said Patrick Farrell, Enterprise’s
vice president of corporate responsibility. Gentex Corp, a Michigan-based auto
parts supplier, had never had a layoff in its 34-year history—until 2008–2009.
“We didn’t even have a layoff policy,” said Gentex’s vice president of human
resources.15
Managing employees well when times are tough is just as hard as when times
are good—if not more so. But the OB approaches sometimes differ. In good
times, understanding how to reward, satisfy, and retain employees is at a premium.
In bad times, issues like stress, decision making, and coping come to the fore.
Responding to Globalization
Organizations are no longer constrained by national borders. Burger King
is owned by a British firm, and McDonald’s sells hamburgers in Moscow.
ExxonMobil, a so-called U.S. company, receives almost 75 percent of its revenues
from sales outside the United States. New employees at Finland-based phone
maker Nokia are increasingly being recruited from India, China, and other
developing countries—non-Finns now outnumber Finns at Nokia’s renowned
research center in Helsinki. And all major automobile makers now manufacture
cars outside their borders; Honda builds cars in Ohio, Ford in Brazil, Volkswagen
in Mexico, and both Mercedes and BMW in South Africa.
The world has become a global village. In the process, the manager’s job has
changed.

51.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
17
Increased Foreign Assignments If you’re a manager, you are increasingly
likely to find yourself in a foreign assignment—transferred to your employer’s
operating division or subsidiary in another country. Once there, you’ll have
to manage a workforce very different in needs, aspirations, and attitudes from
those you are used to back home.
Working with People from Different Cultures Even in your own country,
you’ll find yourself working with bosses, peers, and other employees born and
raised in different cultures. What motivates you may not motivate them. Or
your communication style may be straightforward and open, which others may
find uncomfortable and threatening. To work effectively with people from different cultures, you need to understand how their culture, geography, and religion have shaped them and how to adapt your management style to their
differences.
Managers at global companies such as McDonald’s, Disney, and Coca-Cola
have come to realize that economic values are not universally transferable.
Management practices need to be modified to reflect the values of the different
countries in which an organization operates.
In the global economy, jobs tend
to shift from developed nations to
countries where lower labor costs
give firms a comparative advantage. In this photo, an employee
wearing a sign on his head reading
“Capital Interests” joins co-workers
at a Nokia factory in Germany
to protest the company’s decision of terminating mobile phone
production at the plant, resulting
in the loss of 2,300 jobs. Nokia
announced plans to shift production from Germany to Romania,
where labor costs are lower.
Source: Henning Kaiser/Getty Images
Overseeing Movement of Jobs to Countries with Low-Cost Labor It’s increasingly difficult for managers in advanced nations, where minimum wages are
typically $6 or more an hour, to compete against firms that rely on workers
from China and other developing nations where labor is available for 30 cents
an hour. It’s not by chance that many in the United States wear clothes made
in China, work on computers whose microchips came from Taiwan, and watch
movies filmed in Canada. In a global economy, jobs tend to flow where lower
costs give businesses a comparative advantage, though labor groups, politicians,
and local community leaders see the exporting of jobs as undermining the job
market at home. Managers face the difficult task of balancing the interests of
their organization with their responsibilities to the communities in which they
operate.

52.
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CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
Managing Workforce Diversity
One of the most important challenges for organizations is adapting to people
who are different. We describe this challenge as workforce diversity. Whereas globalization focuses on differences among people from different countries, workforce diversity addresses differences among people within given countries.
Workforce diversity acknowledges a workforce of women and men; many racial and ethnic groups; individuals with a variety of physical or psychological abilities; and people who differ in age and sexual orientation. Managing this diversity
is a global concern. Most European countries have experienced dramatic growth
in immigration from the Middle East, Argentina and Venezuela host a significant
number of migrants from other South American countries, and nations from
India to Iraq to Indonesia find great cultural diversity within their borders.
The most significant change in the U.S. labor force during the last half of
the twentieth century was the rapid increase in the number of female workers.
In 1950, for instance, only 29.6 percent of the workforce was female. By 2008,
it was 46.5 percent. The first half of the twenty-first century will be notable for
changes in racial and ethnic composition and an aging baby boom generation. By 2050, Hispanics will grow from today’s 11 percent of the workforce
to 24 percent, blacks will increase from 12 to 14 percent, and Asians from
5 to 11 percent. Meanwhile, in the near term the labor force will be aging.
The 55-and-older age group, currently 13 percent of the labor force, will increase to 20 percent by 2014.
Though we have more to say about workforce diversity in the next chapter,
suffice it to say here that it presents great opportunities and poses challenging
questions for managers and employees in all countries. How can we leverage
differences within groups for competitive advantage? Should we treat all employees alike? Should we recognize individual and cultural differences? How can we
foster cultural awareness in employees without lapsing into political correctness?
What are the legal requirements in each country? Does diversity even matter?
Improving Customer Service
American Express recently turned Joan Weinbel’s worst nightmare into a nonevent. It was 10:00 p.m. Joan was home in New Jersey, packing for a weeklong
trip, when she suddenly realized she had left her AmEx Gold card at a restaurant in New York City earlier in the evening. The restaurant was 30 miles away.
She had a flight to catch at 7:30 the next morning, and she wanted her card
for the trip. She called American Express. The phone was quickly answered
by a courteous and helpful AmEx customer service representative who told
Ms. Weinbel not to worry. He asked her a few questions and told her, “Help is
on the way.” To say Joan was flabbergasted when her doorbell rang at 11:45 p.m.
is an understatement—it was less than 2 hours after her call. At the door was a
courier with a new card. How the company was able to produce the card and
get it to her so quickly still puzzles Joan, but she said the experience made her
a customer for life.
Today, the majority of employees in developed countries work in service
jobs, including 80 percent in the United States. In Australia, 73 percent work
in service industries. In the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, the percentages are 69, 68, and 65, respectively. Service jobs include technical support representatives, fast-food counter workers, sales clerks, waiters and
waitresses, nurses, automobile repair technicians, consultants, credit representatives, financial planners, and flight attendants. The common characteristic
of these jobs is substantial interaction with an organization’s customers. And
because an organization can’t exist without customers—whether it is American

53.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
19
Source: ITAR - TASS / Anton Tushin / Newscom
The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company
is recognized worldwide as the
gold standard of the hospitality
industry. Its motto—“We are ladies
and gentlemen serving ladies and
gentlemen”—is exemplified by
the employee shown here serving a guest on the summer terrace
of the Ritz-Carlton Moscow. The
Ritz-Carlton’s customer-responsive
culture, which is articulated in
the company’s motto, credo, and
service values, is designed to build
strong relationships that create
guests for life.
Express, L. L. Bean, a law firm, a museum, a school, or a government agency—
management needs to ensure employees do what it takes to please customers.16
At Patagonia—a retail outfitter for climbers, mountain bikers, skiers and boarders, and other outdoor fanatics—customer service is the store manager’s most
important general responsibility: “Instill in your employees the meaning and
importance of customer service as outlined in the retail philosophy, ‘Our store
is a place where the word “no” does not exist’; empower staff to ‘use their
best judgment’ in all customer service matters.”17 OB can help managers at
Patagonia achieve this goal and, more generally, can contribute to improving
an organization’s performance by showing managers how employee attitudes
and behavior are associated with customer satisfaction.
Many an organization has failed because its employees failed to please customers. Management needs to create a customer-responsive culture. OB can provide
considerable guidance in helping managers create such cultures—in which employees are friendly and courteous, accessible, knowledgeable, prompt in responding to customer needs, and willing to do what’s necessary to please the customer.18
Improving People Skills
As you proceed through the chapters of this book, we’ll present relevant concepts and theories that can help you explain and predict the behavior of people at work. In addition, you’ll gain insights into specific people skills that you
workforce diversity The concept that
organizations are becoming more
heterogeneous in terms of gender,
age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
and inclusion of other diverse groups.

54.
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CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
can use on the job. For instance, you’ll learn ways to design motivating jobs,
techniques for improving your listening skills, and how to create more effective teams.
Stimulating Innovation and Change
Whatever happened to Montgomery Ward, Woolworth, Smith Corona, TWA,
Bethlehem Steel, and WorldCom? All these giants went bust. Why have other
giants, such as General Motors, Sears, Boeing, and Lucent Technologies, implemented huge cost-cutting programs and eliminated thousands of jobs? The
answer is to avoid going broke.
Today’s successful organizations must foster innovation and master the art
of change, or they’ll become candidates for extinction. Victory will go to the
organizations that maintain their flexibility, continually improve their quality,
and beat their competition to the marketplace with a constant stream of innovative products and services. Domino’s single-handedly brought on the demise
of small pizza parlors whose managers thought they could continue doing what
they had been doing for years. Amazon.com is putting a lot of independent
bookstores out of business as it proves you can successfully sell books (and most
anything else) from a Web site. After years of lackluster performance, Boeing realized it needed to change its business model. The result was its 787 Dreamliner
and a return to being the world’s largest airplane manufacturer.
An organization’s employees can be the impetus for innovation and change,
or they can be a major stumbling block. The challenge for managers is to stimulate their employees’ creativity and tolerance for change. The field of OB provides a wealth of ideas and techniques to aid in realizing these goals.
Coping with “Temporariness”
Globalization, expanded capacity, and advances in technology have required organizations to be fast and flexible if they are to survive. The result is that most managers and employees today work in a climate best characterized as “temporary.”
Workers must continually update their knowledge and skills to perform new
job requirements. Production employees at companies such as Caterpillar, Ford,
and Alcoa now need to operate computerized production equipment. That
was not part of their job descriptions 20 years ago. In the past, employees were
assigned to a specific work group, gaining a considerable amount of security
working with the same people day in and day out. That predictability has been
replaced by temporary work groups, with members from different departments,
and the increased use of employee rotation to fill constantly changing work assignments. Finally, organizations themselves are in a state of flux. They continually reorganize their various divisions, sell off poorly performing businesses,
downsize operations, subcontract noncritical services and operations to other
organizations, and replace permanent employees with temporary workers.
Today’s managers and employees must learn to cope with temporariness,
flexibility, spontaneity, and unpredictability. The study of OB can help you
better understand a work world of continual change, overcome resistance to
change, and create an organizational culture that thrives on change.
Working in Networked Organizations
Networked organizations allow people to communicate and work together
even though they may be thousands of miles apart. Independent contractors
can telecommute via computer to workplaces around the globe and change
employers as the demand for their services changes. Software programmers,
graphic designers, systems analysts, technical writers, photo researchers, book

55.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
21
Source: AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
Dr. Orit Wimpfheimer performs her
job by linking to others through
networks. Shown here at her home
office near Jerusalem, Israel, she
is a radiologist who analyzes test
results from hospitals in the United
States over the Internet. Networked
organizations that use e-mail, the
Internet, and video-conferencing
allow Dr. Orit Wimpfheimer and
other telecommuters to communicate and work together even
though they are thousands of miles
apart. The manager’s job in a networked organization requires different techniques from those used
when workers are physically present in a single location.
and media editors, and medical transcribers are just a few examples of people
who can work from home or other nonoffice locations.
The manager’s job is different in a networked organization. Motivating and
leading people and making collaborative decisions online requires different
techniques than when individuals are physically present in a single location. As
more employees do their jobs by linking to others through networks, managers
must develop new skills. OB can provide valuable insights to help with honing
those skills.
Helping Employees Balance Work–Life Conflicts
The typical employee in the 1960s or 1970s showed up at a specified workplace
Monday through Friday and worked for clearly defined 8- or 9-hour chunks of
time. That’s no longer true for a large segment of today’s workforce. Employees
are increasingly complaining that the line between work and nonwork time
has become blurred, creating personal conflicts and stress.19 At the same time,
today’s workplace presents opportunities for workers to create and structure
their own roles.
How do work–life conflicts come about? First, the creation of global organizations means the world never sleeps. At any time on any day, thousands of
General Electric employees are working somewhere. The need to consult with
colleagues or customers eight or ten time zones away means many employees of
global firms are “on call” 24 hours a day. Second, communication technology
allows many technical and professional employees to do their work at home,
in their cars, or on the beach in Tahiti—but it also means many feel like they
never really get away from the office. Third, organizations are asking employees
to put in longer hours. Over a recent 10-year period, the average U.S. workweek
increased from 43 to 47 hours; and the number of people working 50 or more
hours a week jumped from 24 to 37 percent. Finally, the rise of the dual-career
couple makes it difficult for married employees to find time to fulfill commitments to home, spouse, children, parents, and friends. Millions of single-parent
households and employees with dependent parents have even more significant
challenges in balancing work and family responsibilities.

56.
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What Is Organizational Behavior?
Employees increasingly recognize that work infringes on their personal
lives, and they’re not happy about it. Recent studies suggest employees want
jobs that give them flexibility in their work schedules so they can better manage
work–life conflicts.20 In fact, balancing work and life demands now surpasses job
security as an employee priority.21 The next generation of employees is likely to
show similar concerns.22 Most college and university students say attaining a balance between personal life and work is a primary career goal; they want “a life”
as well as a job. Organizations that don’t help their people achieve work–life
balance will find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain the most capable
and motivated employees.
As you’ll see in later chapters, the field of OB offers a number of suggestions
to guide managers in designing workplaces and jobs that can help employees
deal with work–life conflicts.
Creating a Positive Work Environment
Although competitive pressures on most organizations are stronger than ever,
some organizations are trying to realize a competitive advantage by fostering a
positive work environment. Jeff Immelt and Jim McNerney, both disciples of
Jack Welch, have tried to maintain high-performance expectations (a characteristic of GE’s culture) while fostering a positive work environment in their
organizations (GE and Boeing). “In this time of turmoil and cynicism about
business, you need to be passionate, positive leaders,” Mr. Immelt recently told
his top managers.
A real growth area in OB research is positive organizational scholarship
(also called positive organizational behavior), which studies how organizations
develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential.
Researchers in this area say too much of OB research and management practice has been targeted toward identifying what’s wrong with organizations and
their employees. In response, they try to study what’s good about them.23 Some
key independent variables in positive OB research are engagement, hope, optimism, and resilience in the face of strain.
Positive organizational scholars have studied a concept called “reflected
best-self”—asking employees to think about when they were at their “personal
best” in order to understand how to exploit their strengths. The idea is that
we all have things at which we are unusually good, yet too often we focus
on addressing our limitations and too rarely think about how to exploit our
strengths.24
Although positive organizational scholarship does not deny the value of the
negative (such as critical feedback), it does challenge researchers to look at OB
through a new lens and pushes organizations to exploit employees’ strengths
rather than dwell on their limitations.
Improving Ethical Behavior
In an organizational world characterized by cutbacks, expectations of increasing productivity, and tough competition, it’s not surprising many employees
feel pressured to cut corners, break rules, and engage in other questionable
practices.
Increasingly they face ethical dilemmas and ethical choices, in which they are
required to identify right and wrong conduct. Should they “blow the whistle”
if they uncover illegal activities in their company? Do they follow orders with
which they don’t personally agree? Should they give an inflated performance
evaluation to an employee they like, knowing it could save that employee’s job?
Do they “play politics” to advance their career?

57.
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model
23
What constitutes good ethical behavior has never been clearly defined, and,
in recent years, the line differentiating right from wrong has blurred. Employees
see people all around them engaging in unethical practices—elected officials
pad expense accounts or take bribes; corporate executives inflate profits so they
can cash in lucrative stock options; and university administrators look the other
way when winning coaches encourage scholarship athletes to take easy courses.
When caught, these people give excuses such as “Everyone does it” or “You
have to seize every advantage nowadays.” Determining the ethically correct way
to behave is especially difficult in a global economy because different cultures
have different perspectives on certain ethical issues.25 Fair treatment of employees in an economic downturn varies considerably across cultures, for instance.
As we’ll see in Chapter 2, perceptions of religious, ethnic, and gender diversity
differ across countries. Is it any wonder employees are expressing decreased
confidence in management and increasing uncertainty about what is appropriate ethical behavior in their organizations?26
Managers and their organizations are responding to the problem of unethical behavior in a number of ways.27 They’re writing and distributing codes of
ethics to guide employees through ethical dilemmas. They’re offering seminars,
workshops, and other training programs to try to improve ethical behaviors.
They’re providing in-house advisors who can be contacted, in many cases anonymously, for assistance in dealing with ethical issues, and they’re creating protection mechanisms for employees who reveal internal unethical practices.
Today’s manager must create an ethically healthy climate for his or her employees, where they can do their work productively with minimal ambiguity about
what right and wrong behaviors are. Companies that promote a strong ethical
mission, encourage employees to behave with integrity, and provide strong ethical leadership can influence employee decisions to behave ethically.28 In upcoming chapters, we’ll discuss the actions managers can take to create an ethically
healthy climate and help employees sort through ethically ambiguous situations.
We’ll also present ethical-dilemma exercises at the end of each chapter that allow
you to think through ethical issues and assess how you would handle them.
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model
8
Compare the three levels
of analysis in this book’s
OB model.
We conclude this chapter by presenting a general model that defines the field
of OB, stakes out its parameters, and identifies inputs, processes, and outcomes.
The result will be “coming attractions” of the topics in the remainder of this book.
An Overview
A model is an abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some realworld phenomenon. Exhibit 1-4 presents the skeleton on which we will construct our OB model. It proposes three types of variables (inputs, processes, and
positive organizational scholarship An
area of OB research that concerns how
organizations develop human strength,
foster vitality and resilience, and
unlock potential.
ethical dilemmas and ethical
choices Situations in which
individuals are required to define right
and wrong conduct.
model An abstraction of reality.
A simplified representation of some
real-world phenomenon.

58.
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An Ethical Choice
Can You Learn from Failure?
M
istakes happen in business
all the time, but most people
have a powerful motivation
to try to cover up their errors as much
as possible. However, not recognizing
and learning from failures might be the
most dangerous failure of all because
it means the problem is likely to occur
again. This means that, even though
it might be hard to admit it, doing
the right thing often means admitting
when you’ve done the wrong thing.
Most people would say that we have
an ethical obligation to learn from
mistakes, but how can we do that?
In a recent special issue in Harvard
Business Review on failures, experts
argued that learning from mistakes
relies on several strategies, which
include:
1. Heed pressure. High pressure often provokes faulty thinking. BP
faced enormous pressure from
cost overruns—roughly $1 million
a day—in its deepwater oil explorations. This led its managers to
miss warning signs that led to the
catastrophic explosion in the Gulf
of Mexico in 2010. Similar time
and cost pressures precipitated the
ill-fated Challenger and Columbia
space shuttle launches. In highpressure situations, ask yourself,
“If I had more time and resources,
would I make the same decision?”
2. Recognize that failure is not always bad. Most of us would agree
that we have learned more in life
from our mistakes than from our successes. So, we need to realize that
while we don’t want to fail, it does
have a hidden gift if we’re willing to
receive—a chance to learn something important. Eli Lilly holds “failure
parties” to honor drug trials and experiments that fail to achieve the desired results. The rationale for these
parties is to recognize that when little
is ventured, little is lost, but little is
gained too. Procter & Gamble CEO
A. G. Lafley argues that very high
success rates show incremental
innovation—but what he wants are
game changers. He has celebrated
P&G’s 11 most expensive product
failures, focusing on what the company learned from each. So don’t be
afraid to admit mistakes—and ask
“What can I learn” from each.
3. Understand and address the root
cause. When Apple introduced the
iPhone 4 in 2010, many customers
complained about dropped calls.
Apple first responded by suggesting the problem lay in the way customers held the phones, suggested
they “avoid gripping [the phone] in
the lower left corner.” Steve Jobs
called the problem a “non-issue.”
Only later did Apple address the
root cause of the problem—and fix
it. When you make an error, try to
understand what caused it.
4. Reward owning up. If you make a
mistake, be willing to speak up and
admit it. Too often we dig ourselves
deeper into a hole by being defensive about mistakes. That also
keeps us from learning from our
failures. If we all make mistakes,
what are we being so defensive
about?
Given the complexity of human behavior, we’ll never avoid making mistakes
entirely. Indeed, a healthy appreciation
for how mistake-prone we are is one
of the points of this chapter (and of
Chapter 6). But we can do a better job
of admitting our mistakes and learning
from them when they occur.
Sources: A. C. Edmondson, “Strategies
for Learning from Failure,” Harvard Business
Review 89, no. 4 (2011), pp. 48–55;
R. G. Mcgrath, “Failing by Design,”
Harvard Business Review 89, no. 4 (2011),
pp. 76–83; C. H. Tinsley, R. L. Dillon, and
P. M. Madsen, “How to Avoid Catastrophe,”
Harvard Business Review 89, no. 4 (2011),
pp. 90–97.
outcomes) at three levels of analysis (individual, group, and organizational).
The model proceeds from left to right, with inputs leading to processes and
processes leading to outcomes. Notice that the model also shows that outcomes
can influence inputs in the future.
Inputs
Inputs are the variables like personality, group structure, and organizational
culture that lead to processes. These variables set the stage for what will occur
in an organization later. Many are determined in advance of the employment
relationship. For example, individual diversity characteristics, personality, and
values are shaped by a combination of an individual’s genetic inheritance and
childhood environment. Group structure, roles, and team responsibilities are

59.
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model
Exhibit 1-4
25
A Basic OB Model
Inputs
Processes
Outcomes
Individual Level
• Diversity
• Personality
• Values
Individual Level
• Emotions and moods
• Motivation
• Perception
• Decision making
Individual Level
• Attitudes and stress
• Task performance
• Citizenship behavior
• Withdrawal behavior
Group Level
• Group structure
• Group roles
• Team responsibilities
Group Level
• Communication
• Leadership
• Power and politics
• Conflict and negotiation
Group Level
• Group cohesion
• Group functioning
Organizational Level
• Structure
• Culture
Organizational Level
• Human resource
management
• Change practices
Organizational Level
• Productivity
• Survival
typically assigned immediately before or after a group is formed. Finally, organizational structure and culture are usually the result of years of development and
change as the organization adapts to its environment and builds up customs
and norms.
Processes
If inputs are like the nouns in organizational behavior, processes are like verbs.
Processes are actions that individuals, groups, and organizations engage in as
a result of inputs and that lead to certain outcomes. At the individual level,
processes include emotions and moods, motivation, perception, and decision
making. At the group level, they include communication, leadership, power
and politics, and conflict and negotiation. Finally, at the organizational level,
processes include human resource management and change practices.
Outcomes
Outcomes are the key variables that you want to explain or predict, and that
are affected by some other variables. What are the primary outcomes in OB?
Scholars have emphasized individual-level outcomes like attitudes and satisfaction, task performance, citizenship behavior, and withdrawal behavior. At the
group level, cohesion and functioning are the dependent variables. Finally, at
the organizational level we look at overall profitability and survival. Because
these outcomes will be covered in all the chapters, we’ll briefly discuss each
here so you can understand what the “goal” of OB will be.
input Variables that lead to processes.
processes Actions that individuals,
outcomes Key factors that are
groups, and organizations engage in
as a result of inputs and that lead to
certain outcomes.
affected by some other variables.

60.
26
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
Attitudes and Stress Employee attitudes are the evaluations employees make,
ranging from positive to negative, about objects, people, or events. For example, the statement, “I really think my job is great,” is a positive job attitude, and
“My job is boring and tedious” is a negative job attitude. Stress is an unpleasant
psychological process that occurs in response to environmental pressures.
Some people might think that influencing employee attitudes and stress is
purely soft stuff, and not the business of serious managers, but as we will show,
attitudes often have behavioral consequences that directly relate to organizational effectiveness. The belief that satisfied employees are more productive
than dissatisfied employees has been a basic tenet among managers for years,
though only now has research begun to support it. Ample evidence shows that
employees who are more satisfied and treated fairly are more willing to engage
in the above-and-beyond citizenship behavior so vital in the contemporary business environment. A study of more than 2,500 business units also found that
those scoring in the top 25 percent on the employee opinion survey were, on
average, 4.6 percent above their sales budget for the year, while those scoring in
the bottom 25 percent were 0.8 percent below budget. In real numbers, this was
a difference of $104 million in sales per year between the two groups.
Task Performance The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing
your core job tasks is a reflection of your level of task performance. If we think
about the job of a factory worker, task performance could be measured by the
number and quality of products produced in an hour. The task performance of
a teacher would be the level of education that students obtain. The task performance of a consultant might be measured by the timeliness and quality of the
presentations they offer to the client firm. All these types of performance relate
to the core duties and responsibilities of a job and are often directly related to
the functions listed on a formal job description.
Obviously task performance is the most important human output contributing to organizational effectiveness, so in every chapter we devote considerable
time to detailing how task performance is affected by the topic in question.
Source: AP Photo/Mark Duncan
Task performance is one of the
primary individual-level outcomes
in organizational behavior. For
these women who install wiring in
car doors at the General Motors’
assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio,
task performance is measured by
the number and quality of the work
they produce. Their level of task
performance is related to the duties
of their job and how effectively and
efficiently they perform them. Task
performance is the most important
human output contributing to organizational effectiveness.

61.
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model
27
Citizenship Behavior The discretionary behavior that is not part of an
employee’s formal job requirements, and that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workplace, is called citizenship behavior.
Successful organizations need employees who will do more than their usual job
duties—who will provide performance beyond expectations. In today’s dynamic
workplace, where tasks are increasingly performed by teams and flexibility is
critical, employees who engage in “good citizenship” behaviors help others
on their team, volunteer for extra work, avoid unnecessary conflicts, respect
the spirit as well as the letter of rules and regulations, and gracefully tolerate
occasional work-related impositions and nuisances.
Organizations want and need employees who will do things that aren’t in
any job description. Evidence indicates organizations that have such employees
outperform those that don’t. As a result, OB is concerned with citizenship behavior as an outcome variable.
Withdrawal Behavior We’ve already mentioned behavior that goes above and
beyond task requirements, but what about behavior that in some way is below
task requirements? Withdrawal behavior is the set of actions that employees take
to separate themselves from the organization. There are many forms of withdrawal, ranging from showing up late or failing to attend meetings to absenteeism and turnover.
Employee withdrawal can have a very negative effect on an organization.
The cost of employee turnover alone has been estimated to run into the thousands of dollars, even for entry-level positions. Absenteeism also costs organizations significant amounts of money and time every year. For instance, a recent
survey found the average direct cost to U.S. employers of unscheduled absences
is 8.7 percent of payroll.29 In Sweden, an average of 10 percent of the country’s
workforce is on sick leave at any given time.30
It’s obviously difficult for an organization to operate smoothly and attain its
objectives if employees fail to report to their jobs. The work flow is disrupted,
and important decisions may be delayed. In organizations that rely heavily on
assembly-line production, absenteeism can be considerably more than a disruption; it can drastically reduce the quality of output or even shut down the facility.
Levels of absenteeism beyond the normal range have a direct impact on any organization’s effectiveness and efficiency. A high rate of turnover can also disrupt the
efficient running of an organization when knowledgeable and experienced personnel leave and replacements must be found to assume positions of responsibility.
All organizations, of course, have some turnover. The U.S. national turnover
rate averages about 3 percent per month, about a 36 percent turnover per year.
This average varies a lot by occupation, of course; the monthly turnover rate for
government jobs is less than 1 percent, versus 5 to 7 percent in the construction industry.31 If the “right” people are leaving the organization—the marginal
and submarginal employees—turnover can actually be positive. It can create an
opportunity to replace an underperforming individual with someone who has
higher skills or motivation, open up increased opportunities for promotions,
task performance The combination of
effectiveness and efficiency at doing
your core job tasks.
citizenship behavior Discretionary
behavior that contributes to the
psychological and social environment
of the workplace.
withdrawal behavior The set of
actions employee take to separate
themselves from the organization.

62.
28
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
and bring new and fresh ideas to the organization.32 In today’s changing world
of work, reasonable levels of employee-initiated turnover improve organizational flexibility and employee independence, and they can lessen the need for
management-initiated layoffs.
So why do employees withdraw from work? As we will show later in the book,
reasons include negative job attitudes, emotions and moods, and negative interactions with co-workers and supervisors.
Group Cohesion Although many outcomes in our model can be conceptualized as individual level phenomena, some relate to how groups operate. Group
cohesion is the extent to which members of a group support and validate one
another at work. In other words, a cohesive group is one that sticks together.
When employees trust one another, seek common goals, and work together to
achieve these common ends, the group is cohesive; when employees are divided
among themselves in terms of what they want to achieve and have little loyalty to
one another, the group is not cohesive.
There is ample evidence showing that cohesive groups are more effective.33
These results are found both for groups that are studied in highly controlled
laboratory settings and also for work teams observed in field settings. This fits
with our intuitive sense that people tend to work harder in groups that have
a common purpose. Companies attempt to increase cohesion in a variety of
ways ranging from brief icebreaker sessions to social events like picnics, parties,
and outdoor adventure-team retreats. Throughout the book we will try to assess
whether these specific efforts are likely to result in increases in group cohesiveness. We’ll also consider ways that picking the right people to be on the team in
the first place might be an effective way to enhance cohesion.
Group Functioning In the same way that positive job attitudes can be associated with higher levels of task performance, group cohesion should lead to positive group functioning. Group functioning refers to the quantity and quality of
a group’s work output. In the same way that the performance of a sports team
is more than the sum of individual players’ performance, group functioning in
work organizations is more than the sum of individual task performances.
What does it mean to say that a group is functioning effectively? In some
organizations, an effective group is one that stays focused on a core task and
achieves its ends as specified. Other organizations look for teams that are able
to work together collaboratively to provide excellent customer service. Still
others put more of a premium on group creativity and the flexibility to adapt to
changing situations. In each case, different types of activities will be required to
get the most from the team.
Productivity The highest level of analysis in organizational behavior is the organization as a whole. An organization is productive if it achieves its goals by
transforming inputs into outputs at the lowest cost. Thus productivity requires
both effectiveness and efficiency.
A hospital is effective when it successfully meets the needs of its clientele. It is efficient when it can do so at a low cost. If a hospital manages to achieve higher output
from its present staff by reducing the average number of days a patient is confined
to bed or increasing the number of staff–patient contacts per day, we say the hospital has gained productive efficiency. A business firm is effective when it attains
its sales or market share goals, but its productivity also depends on achieving those
goals efficiently. Popular measures of organizational efficiency include return on
investment, profit per dollar of sales, and output per hour of labor.
Service organizations must include customer needs and requirements in assessing their effectiveness. Why? Because a clear chain of cause and effect runs

63.
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model
Exhibit 1-5
29
The Plan of the Book
The Individual
The Group
The Organization
Inputs
• Diversity in Organizations
(ch.2)
• Personality and Values
(ch. 5)
Inputs
• Group structures
(Ch. 9 & 10)
• Group roles (Ch. 9 & 10)
• Team responsibilities
(Ch. 9 & 10)
Inputs
• Structure (Ch. 15)
• Culture (Ch. 16)
Processes
• Emotions and moods (ch. 4)
• Motivation (Ch. 7 and 8)
• Perception and decision
making (Ch. 6)
Processes
• Communication (Ch. 11)
• Leadership (Ch. 12)
• Power and polities (Ch. 13)
• Conflict and negotiation
(Ch. 14)
Processes
• Human resource
management (Ch. 17)
• Change practices
(Ch. 18)
Outcomes
• Attitudes (ch. 3) & stress
(ch. 18)
• Task performance (all)
• Citizenship behavior (all)
• Withdrawal behavior (all)
Outcomes
• Group collesion
(Ch. 9 & 10)
• Group functioning
(Ch. 9 & 10)
Outcomes
• Profitability
(Ch. 16 & 17)
• Survival
(Ch. 16 & 17)
from employee attitudes and behavior to customer attitudes and behavior to a
service organization’s productivity. Sears has carefully documented this chain.34
The company’s management found that a 5 percent improvement in employee
attitudes leads to a 1.3 percent increase in customer satisfaction, which in turn
translates into a 0.5 percent improvement in revenue growth. By training employees to improve the employee–customer interaction, Sears was able to improve customer satisfaction by 4 percent over a 12-month period, generating an
estimated $200 million in additional revenues.
Survival The final outcome we will consider is organizational survival, which
is simply evidence that the organization is able to exist and grow over the long
term. The survival of an organization depends not just on how productive the
organization is, but also on how well it fits with its environment. A company
that is very productively making goods and services of little value to the market is unlikely to survive for long, so survival factors in things like perceiving
the market successfully, making good decisions about how and when to pursue
opportunities, and engaging in successful change management to adapt to new
business conditions.
Having reviewed the input, process, and outcome model, we’re going to
change the figure up a little bit by grouping topics together based on whether we
study them at the individual, group, or organizational level. As you can seen in
Exhibit 1-5, we will deal with inputs, processes, and outcomes at all three levels of
group cohesion The extent to which
productivity The combination of the
members of a group support and
validate one another while at work.
effectiveness and efficiency of an
organization.
efficiency The degree to which an
organization can achieve its ends at a
low cost.
group functioning The quantity and
effectiveness The degree to which
an organization meets the needs of its
clientele or customers.
organizational survival The degree to
which an organization is able to exist
and grow over the long term.
quality of a work group’s output.

64.
30
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
glOBalization!
Does National Culture Affect Organizational Practices?
C
ompanies that operate in more
than one country face a challenging dilemma: how much should
they tailor organizational practices like
leadership style, rewards, and communication to each country’s culture? To
some extent, it is necessary to change
the way a company does business
because of differences in regulations,
institutions, and labor force characteristics. For example, a U.S. company
that operates in Germany will have to
contend with laws requiring greater
worker participation in decision
making, and an Australian company
operating in China will have to match
the knowledge and skills found in
the Chinese workforce. Despite
certain limitations imposed by law
and situational factors, managers still
need to make many decisions about
adjusting their organizational culture to
match the culture of the countries in
which they operate.
There are no simple responses
to this dilemma. Some researchers
propose that managers need to make
a concerted effort to adapt their organizational culture to match the culture
of the countries in which they operate.
These authors note that within any
country, there is a great deal of similarity in management practices that is
likely the result of culture or values.
If a country’s basic outlook is highly
individualistic, then organizational culture should also emphasize individual
contributions and efforts. Conversely,
if national culture values collectivism,
then organizational culture should
emphasize group contributions and
cohesiveness. From this perspective,
successful international management
is all about tailoring management practices and values to fit with the cultural
values of each country in which the
company operates.
On the other hand, some propose
that national culture should not, and
does not, make much difference in
shaping organizational culture. These
researchers note that even within a
single country, there can be a great
deal of variation in values and norms.
The development of practices to match
a culture is fraught with problems of
stereotyping and over-generalizing
about the degree to which everyone
in a given country shares the same
values. These authors also note that
in tailoring practices to each country, a
firm loses the potential value of having
a unifying organizational culture. From
this perspective, companies should try
as much as possible to create a strong
culture that operates across borders to
create a unified global workforce.
Sources: Based on B. Gerhart, “How
Much Does National Culture Constrain
Organizational Culture,” Management
and Organization Review 5, no. 2 (2009),
pp. 241–259; A. S. Tsui, S. S. Nifadkar,
and A. Y. Ou, “Cross-national, Crosscultural Organizational Behavior Research:
Advances, Gaps, and Recommendations,”
Journal of Management 33, no. 3 (2007),
pp. 426-478; G. Johns, “The Essential
Impact of Context on Organizational
Behavior,” Academy of Management
Review 31, no. 2 (2006), pp. 386–408.
analysis, but we group the chapters as shown here to correspond with the typical
ways that research has been done in these areas. It is easier to understand one
unified presentation about how personality leads to motivation which leads to
performance, than to jump around levels of analysis. Because each level builds
on the one that precedes it, after going through them in sequence you will have
a good idea of how the human side of organizations functions.
Summary and Implications for Managers
Managers need to develop their interpersonal, or people, skills to be effective in their jobs. Organizational behavior (OB) investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within an organization,
and it applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively.
Specifically, OB focuses on how to improve productivity; reduce absenteeism,

65.
Summary and Implications for Managers
Lost in Translation?
POINT
W
alk into your nearest major bookstore. You’ll undoubtedly find a large selection of books devoted to management and managing. Consider the following recent titles:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Tough Cookies: What 100 Years of the Girl Scouts Can Teach
You (Wiley, 2011)
From Wags to Riches: How Dogs Teach Us to Succeed in
Business & Life (BenBella Books, 2011)
All I Know About Management I Learned from My Dog:
The Real Story of Angel, a Rescued Golden Retriever,
Who Inspired the New Four Golden Rules of Management
(Skyhorse Publishing, 2011)
Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical
Leadership (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011)
Polar Bear Pirates and Their Quest to Engage the
Sleepwalkers: Motivate Everyday People to Deliver
Extraordinary Results (Capstone, 2011)
Winnie-the-Pooh on Management: In Which a Very
Important Bear and His Friends Are Introduced to a Very
Important Subject (Penguin, 2011)
Chicken Lips, Wheeler-Dealer, and the Beady-Eyed M.B.A.:
An Entrepreneurs Wild Adventures on the New Silk Road
(Wiley, 2011)
Bodybuilders in Tutus: and 35 Other Obscure BusinessBoosting Observations (Robinwood Press, 2011)
I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse: Insider Business
Tips from a Former Mob Boss (Thomas Nelson, 2011)
The Art of War from SmarterComics: How to be Successful
in Any Competition (Writers of The Round Table Press, 2011)
Popular books on organizational behavior often have cute
titles and are fun to read, but they make the job of managing
people seem much simpler than it is. Most are based on the
author’s opinions rather than substantive research, and it is
doubtful that one person’s experience translates into effective
management practice for everyone. Why do we waste our time
on “fluff” when, with a little effort, we can access knowledge
produced from thousands of scientific studies on human behavior in organizations?
Organizational behavior is a complex subject. Few, if any,
simple statements about human behavior are generalizable to
all people in all situations. Should you really try to apply leadership insights you got from a book about Geronimo or Tony
Soprano to managing software engineers in the twenty-first
century?
COUNTERPOINT
O
rganizations are always looking for leaders, and managers and manager-wannabes are continually looking
for ways to hone their leadership skills. Publishers respond to this demand by offering hundreds of titles that promise insights into managing people. Books like these can provide
people with the secrets to management that others know about.
Moreover, isn’t it better to learn about management from people
in the trenches, as opposed to the latest esoteric musings from
the “Ivory Tower”? Many of the most important insights we gain
from life aren’t necessarily the product of careful empirical research studies.
It is true there are some bad books out there. But do they
outnumber the esoteric research studies published every year?
For example, a couple of recent management and organizational behavior studies were published in 2011 with the following titles:
●
●
●
●
Training for Fostering Knowledge Co-Construction from
Collaborative Inference-Drawing
The Factor Structure and Cross-Test Convergence of the
Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Model of Emotional Intelligence
Refining Value-Based Differentiation in Business Relationships:
A Study of the Higher Order Relationship Building Blocks that
Influence Behavioural Intentions
A Dialogical Approach to the Creation of New Knowledge in
Organizations
We don’t mean to poke fun at these studies. Rather, our point is
that you can’t judge a book by its cover any more than you can a
research study by its title.
There is no one right way to learn the science and art of
managing people in organizations. The most enlightened managers are those who gather insights from multiple sources: their
own experience, research findings, observations of others,
and, yes, business press books, too. If great management were
produced by carefully gleaning results from research studies,
academicians would make the best managers. How often do we
see that?
Research and academics have an important role to play in
understanding effective management. But it isn’t fair to condemn all business books by citing the worst (or, at least, the
worse-sounding ones).
31

66.
32
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
turnover, and deviant workplace behavior; and increase organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction. Here are a few specific implications for
managers:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Some generalizations provide valid insights into human behavior, but
many are erroneous. Organizational behavior uses systematic study to
improve predictions of behavior over intuition alone.
Because people are different, we need to look at OB in a contingency framework, using situational variables to explain cause-and-effect relationships.
Organizational behavior offers specific insights to improve a manager’s
people skills.
It helps managers to see the value of workforce diversity and practices
that may need to be changed in different countries.
It can improve quality and employee productivity by showing managers
how to empower their people, design and implement change programs,
improve customer service, and help employees balance work–life conflicts.
It can help managers cope in a world of temporariness and learn how to
stimulate innovation.
Finally, OB can guide managers in creating an ethically healthy work
climate.
MyManagementLab
Now that you have finished this chapter, go back to www.mymanagementlab.com to continue
practicing and applying the concepts you’ve learned.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
1
2
What is the importance of interpersonal skills?
What do managers do in terms of functions, roles,
and skills?
3
4
What is organizational behavior (OB)?
Why is it important to complement intuition with
systematic study?
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE
5
What are the major behavioral science disciplines that
contribute to OB?
6
7
Why are there few absolutes in OB?
What are the challenges and opportunities for
managers in using OB concepts?
8
What are the three levels of analysis in this book’s
OB model?
Workforce Diversity
Purpose
To learn about the different needs of a diverse workforce.
Time Required
Approximately 40 minutes.
Participants and Roles
Divide the class into six groups of approximately equal
size. Assign each group one of the following roles:
Nancy is 28 years old. The divorced mother of three
children ages 3, 5, and 7, she is the department head.
She earns $40,000 per year at her job and receives
another $3,600 per year in child support from her
ex-husband.
Ethel is a 72-year-old widow. She works 25 hours
per week at an hourly wage of $8.50 to supplement
her $8,000 annual pension and earns a total of
$19,000 per year.
John is a 34-year-old born in Trinidad who is now a
U.S. resident. He is married and the father of two
small children. John attends college at night and is

67.
Ethical Dilemma
within a year of earning his bachelor’s degree. His
salary is $27,000 per year. His wife is an attorney and
earns approximately $50,000 per year.
Lu is 26 years old and single with a master’s degree
in education. He is paralyzed and confined to a
wheelchair as a result of an auto accident. He earns
$32,000 per year.
Maria is a single, 22-year-old woman born and raised
in Mexico. She came to the United States only
3 months ago, and her English needs considerable
improvement. She earns $20,000 per year.
Mike is a 16-year-old high school sophomore who
works 15 hours per week after school and during
vacations. He earns $7.20 per hour, or approximately
$5,600 per year.
The members of each group are to assume the character
consistent with their assigned role.
Background
The six participants work for a company that has recently
installed a flexible benefits program. Instead of the traditional “one benefit package fits all,” the company is
allocating an additional 25 percent of each employee’s
annual pay to be used for discretionary benefits. Those
benefits and their annual cost are as follows:
●
●
●
Supplementary health care for employee:
Plan A (no deductible and pays 90 percent) ϭ $3,000
Plan B ($200 deductible and pays 80 percent) ϭ
$2,000
Plan C ($1,000 deductible and pays 70 percent) ϭ $500
Supplementary health care for dependents (same
deductibles and percentages as above):
Plan A ϭ $2,000
Plan B ϭ $1,500
Plan C ϭ $500
Supplementary dental plan ϭ $500
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
33
Life insurance:
Plan A ($25,000 coverage) ϭ $500
Plan B ($50,000 coverage) ϭ $1,000
Plan C ($100,000 coverage) ϭ $2,000
Plan D ($250,000 coverage) ϭ $3,000
Mental health plan ϭ $500
Prepaid legal assistance ϭ $300
Vacation ϭ 2 percent of annual pay for each week, up
to 6 weeks a year
Pension at retirement equal to approximately 50 percent of final annual earnings ϭ $1,500
4-day workweek during the 3 summer months
(available only to full-time employees) ϭ 4 percent
of annual pay
Day care services (after company contribution) ϭ
$2,000 for all of an employee’s children, regardless
of number
Company-provided transportation to and from
work ϭ $750
College tuition reimbursement ϭ $1,000
Language class tuition reimbursement ϭ $500
The Task
1. Each group has 15 minutes to develop a flexible
benefits package that consumes 25 percent
(and no more!) of its character’s pay.
2. After completing step 1, each group appoints a
spokesperson who describes to the entire class the
benefits package the group has arrived at for its
character.
3. The entire class then discusses the results. How did
the needs, concerns, and problems of each participant influence the group’s decision? What do the
results suggest for trying to motivate a diverse
workforce?
Source: Special thanks to Professor Penny Wright (San Diego State University) for her suggestions during
the development of this exercise.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
Jekyll and Hyde
Let’s assume you have been offered a job by Jekyll
Corporation, a company in the consumer products industry. The job is in your chosen career path.
Jekyll Corporation has offered you a position that
would begin 2 weeks after you graduate. The job responsibilities are appealing to you, make good use of your
training, and are intrinsically interesting. The company
seems well positioned financially, and you have met the
individual who would be your supervisor, who assures you
that the future prospects for your position and career are
bright. Several other graduates of your program work at
Jekyll Corporation, and they speak quite positively of the
company and promise to socialize and network with you
once you start.
As a company, Jekyll Corporation promotes itself as a
fair-trade and sustainable organization. Fair trade is a trading partnership—based on dialogue, transparency, and
respect—that seeks greater equity in international trade.
It contributes to sustainable development by offering
better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of,

68.
34
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
local producers and businesses. Fair-trade organizations
are actively engaged in supporting producers and sustainable environmental farming practices, and fair-trade practices prohibit child or forced labor.
Yesterday, Gabriel Utterson—a human resources manager at Jekyll Corporation—called you to discuss initial
terms of the offer, which seemed reasonable and standard
for the industry. However, one aspect was not mentioned,
your starting salary. Gabriel said Jekyll is an internally transparent organization—there are no secrets. While the firm
very much wants to hire you, there are limits to what it can
afford to offer, and before it makes a formal offer, it was
reasonable to ask what you would expect. Gabriel wanted
you to think about this and call back tomorrow.
Before calling Gabriel, you thought long and hard
about what it would take to accept Jekyll Corporation’s
offer. You have a number in mind, which may or may not
be the same number you give Gabriel. What starting salary
would it take for you to accept Jekyll Corporation’s offer?
Questions
1. What starting salary will you give Gabriel? What salary represents the minimum offer you would accept?
If these two numbers are different, why? Does giving
CASE INCIDENT 1
Gabriel a different number than your “internal” number violate Jekyll Corporation’s transparent culture?
Why or why not?
2. Assume you’ve received another offer, this one from
Hyde Associates. Like the Jekyll job, this position is
on your chosen career path and in the consumer
products industry. Assume, however, that you’ve read
in the news that “Hyde Associates has been criticized for
unsustainable manufacturing practices that may be harmful to the environment. It has further been criticized for unfair trade practices and for employing underage children.”
Would that change whether you’d be willing to take
the job? Why or why not?
3. These scenarios are based on studies of Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) practices that show consumers generally charge a kind of rent to companies
that do not practice CSR. In other words, they generally expect a substantial discount in order to buy
a product from Hyde rather than from Jekyll. For
example, if Jekyll and Hyde sold coffee, people would
pay a premium of $1.40 to buy coffee from Jekyll and
demand a discount of $2.40 to buy Hyde coffee. Do
you think this preference translates into job choice
decisions? Why or why not?
“Lessons for ‘Undercover’ Bosses”
Executive offices in major corporations are often far removed from the day-to-day work that most employees perform. While top executives might enjoy the perquisites
found in the executive suite, and separation from workday
concerns can foster a broader perspective on the business,
the distance between management and workers can come
at a real cost: top managers often fail to understand the
ways most employees do their jobs every day. The dangers
of this distant approach are clear. Executives sometimes
make decisions without recognizing how difficult or impractical they are to implement. Executives can also lose
sight of the primary challenges their employees face.
The practice of “management by walking around”
(MBWA) works against the insularity of the executive
suite. To practice MBWA, managers reserve time to walk
through departments regularly, form networks of acquaintances in the organization, and get away from their desks
to talk to individual employees. The practice was exemplified by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who used this
management style at HP to learn more about the challenges and opportunities their employees were encountering. Many other organizations followed suit and found
that this style of management had advantages over a typical desk-bound approach to management. A recent study
of successful Swedish organizations revealed that MBWA
was an approach common to several firms that received
national awards for being great places to work.
The popular television program Undercover Boss took
MBWA to the next level by having top executives from
companies like Chiquita Brands, DirectTV, Great Wolf
Resorts, and NASCAR work incognito among line employees. Executives reported that this process taught them
how difficult many of the jobs in their organizations were,
and just how much skill was required to perform even the
lowest-level tasks. They also said the experience taught
them a lot about the core business in their organizations
and sparked ideas for improvements.
Although MBWA has long had its advocates, it does
present certain problems. First, the time managers spend
directly observing the workforce is time they are not doing their core job tasks like analysis, coordination, and
strategic planning. Second, management based on subjective impressions gathered by walking around runs counter
to a research and data-based approach to making managerial decisions. Third, it is also possible that executives
who wander about will be seen as intruders and overseers.
Implementing the MBWA style requires a great deal of
foresight to avoid these potential pitfalls.

69.
Case Incident 2
Questions
1. What are some of the things managers can learn by
walking around and having daily contact with line
employees that they might not be able to learn from
looking at data and reports?
2. As an employee, would you appreciate knowing your
supervisor regularly spent time with workers? How
would knowing top executives routinely interact
with line employees affect your attitudes toward the
organization?
35
3. What ways can executives and other organizational
leaders learn about day-to-day business operations
besides going “undercover?”
4. Are there any dangers in the use of a management
by walking around strategy? Could this strategy lead
employees to feel they are being spied on? What
actions on the part of managers might minimize
these concerns?
Sources: Based on T. Peters and N. Austin, “Management by Walking About,” Economist (September 8,
2008), www.economist.com; F. Aguirre, M. White, K. Schaefer, and S. Phelps, “Secrets of an Undercover
Boss,” Fortune (August 27, 2010), pp. 41–44; J. Larsson, I. Backstrom, and H. Wiklund, “Leadership
and Organizational Behavior: Similarities between Three Award-Winning Organizations,” International
Journal of Management Practice 3 (2009), pp. 327–345.
CASE INCIDENT 2
Era of the Disposable Worker?
The great global recession has claimed many victims. In
many countries, unemployment is at near-historic highs,
and even those who have managed to keep their jobs have
often been asked to accept reduced work hours or pay
cuts. Another consequence of the current business and
economic environment is an increase in the number of
individuals employed on a temporary or contingent basis.
The statistics on U.S. temporary workers are grim. Many,
like single mother Tammy Smith, have no health insurance, no retirement benefits, no vacation, no severance,
and no access to unemployment insurance. Increases in
layoffs mean that many jobs formerly considered safe have
become “temporary” in the sense that they could disappear at any time with little warning. Forecasts suggest that
the next 5 to 10 years will be similar, with small pay increases, worse working conditions, and low levels of job security. As Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania’s
Wharton School notes, “Employers are trying to get rid of
all fixed costs. First they did it with employment benefits.
Now they’re doing it with the jobs themselves. Everything
is variable.”
We might suppose these corporate actions are largely
taking place in an era of diminishing profitability.
However, data from the financial sector is not consistent
with this explanation. Among Fortune 500 companies, 2009
saw the second-largest jump in corporate earnings in the
list’s 56-year history. Moreover, many of these gains do not
appear to be the result of increases in revenue. Rather,
they reflect dramatic decreases in labor costs. One equity
market researcher noted, “The largest part of the gain
came from lower payrolls rather than the sluggish rise in
sales . . .” Wages also rose only slightly during this period
of rapidly increasing corporate profitability.
Some observers suggest the very nature of corporate
profit monitoring is to blame for the discrepancy between
corporate profitability and outcomes for workers. Some
have noted that teachers whose evaluations are based on
standardized test scores tend to “teach to the test,” to the
detriment of other areas of learning. In the same way,
when a company is judged primarily by the single metric of a stock price, executives naturally try their best to
increase this number, possibly to the detriment of other
concerns like employee well-being or corporate culture.
On the other hand, others defend corporate actions that
increase the degree to which they can treat labor flexibly,
noting that in an increasingly competitive global marketplace, it might be necessary to sacrifice some jobs to save
the organization as a whole.
The issues of how executives make decisions about
workforce allocation, how job security and corporate loyalty influence employee behavior, and how emotional
reactions come to surround these issues are all core components of organizational behavior research.
Questions
1. To what extent can individual business decisions
(as opposed to economic forces) explain deterioration in working conditions for many workers?
2. Do business organizations have a responsibility to
ensure that employees have secure jobs with good

72.
THE RISE AND FALL OF ERIN CALLAN
E
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter,
you should be able to:
1
Describe the two major
forms of workforce
diversity.
2
Recognize stereotypes
and understand how they
function in organizational
settings.
3
Identify the key
biographical characteristics
and describe how they
are relevant to OB.
4
Define intellectual ability
and demonstrate its
relevance to OB.
5
Contrast intellectual
and physical ability.
6
Describe how organizations
manage diversity
effectively.
MyManagementLab
Access a host of interactive
learning aids to help strengthen
your understanding of the
chapter concepts at
www.mymanagementlab.com.
38
rin Callan was one of those rare individuals who seemed to master
everything she undertook. Due to her precocious intelligence and
athletic prowess (at 13 she was one of the top gymnasts in New York),
people called her Wonder Child. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard,
earned her law degree from New York University, and went to work for one of
the most prestigious law firms in New York City. In 1995, she went into banking, eventually rising to be chief financial officer (CFO) of one of the largest and
most prestigious U.S. investment banks, Lehman Brothers. At 41—young for a
CFO of such a large organization—Callan seemed to have it all. She was the first
woman ever to serve on the 158-year-old company’s executive committee. One
newspaper labeled her “Rising Star Erin Callan, now one of the most powerful
women on Wall Street.”
Now Callan is jobless and living in virtual exile on Long Island.
What happened?
The story of Erin Callan’s fall has a lot to do with the meltdown in the
financial services industry. Lehman, after all, went bankrupt in 2008, and
most senior executives lost their jobs. Most of its managers and executives,
however, have found work elsewhere. Why not Callan? The answer depends
on which narrative you accept. Callan refuses to discuss the issue with the
media. To some, she brought about her own downfall with her outsized
ambition and desire for attention. To others, she is the victim of a gender
double standard that is alive and well on Wall Street and elsewhere.
From one point of view, Callan caused her own demise. She lacked background in accounting, treasury, or operations—unusual for a CFO. According
to Fortune, many at Lehman disapproved of her brash style and provocative
wardrobe. “I don’t subordinate my feminine side,” she says. “I’m very open
about it. I have no problem talking about my shopper or my outfit.” When
Callan was named CFO, one of Lehman’s female senior executives went to
the CEO to rescind the promotion. Later, in the early days of the financial
meltdown, investors thought Callan’s responses were unimpressive. A few
months later, she was removed. Currently, the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) is investigating whether her “forward looking statements”
regarding Lehman’s finances constitute civil fraud.
Read this way, Callan’s is the typical story of a Wall Street executive
caught unprepared for a crisis his or her decisions helped create. Is the story
so simple, though? After all, nearly all Callan’s male counterparts at Lehman
are now employed, including ex-CEO Richard Fuld (now managing member
of Matrix Advisors and advisor with Legend Securities). Many have landed at
Barclays, the British Bank that bought Lehman in bankruptcy.

74.
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CHAPTER 2
Diversity in Organizations
Does Callan’s sex have a role in this? Does an interest in fashion serve to
stigmatize women more than men? Does an interest in the media (“She was a
media hound,” said one Lehman executive) cast women in a harsher light?
Even National Public Radio (NPR) seemed to emphasize Callan’s looks over
her intellect. “Blonde, beautiful and outspoken, the spotlight loved Erin Callan.
Fortune magazine called her one of four women to watch,” said NPR. “Callan
cut a striking figure in her crochet-style dress, gold dangling earrings and
high-heeled boots.” Fortune said, “She arrived like a flash—a bright, glamorous
figure.” Were such descriptions applied to the male CFOs of Goldman Sachs,
Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, or Bear Stearns?
As for Callan, friends say she is at peace with herself and her situation. “I’m
living a different life,” she recently told a reporter.
Sources: P. Sellers, “The Fall of a Wall Street Highflier,” Fortune (March 22, 2010), pp. 140–148;
P. Sellers, “Erin Callan, Lehman’s Ex-CFO, Goes Public,” CNN Money (February 22, 2011), www
.cnnmoney.com/; J. Quinn, “Goldman Outshines Rival Bear Stearns,” The Telegraph (September 21,
2007), www.telegraph.co.uk/; and C. Gasparino, “Lehman Probe Begins to Square in on Former
CFO,” FOXBusiness (June 10, 2010), www.foxbusiness.com/.
S
ex is but one characteristic people bring with them when they join an
organization. In this chapter, we look at how organizations work to maximize the potential contributions of a diverse workforce. We also show how
demographic characteristics such as ethnicity and individual differences in the
form of ability affect employee performance and satisfaction.
But first check out the following Self-Assessment Library, where you can
assess your views on one of the characteristics we’ll discuss in this chapter: age.
S A
L
SELF-ASSESSMENT LIBRARY
What’s My Attitude Toward Older People?
In the Self-Assessment Library (available on CD or online), take assessment IV.C.1
(What’s My Attitude Toward Older People?) and answer the following questions:
1. Are you surprised by your results?
2. How do your results compare to those of others?
Diversity
1
Describe the two major
forms of workforce diversity.
We aren’t all the same. This is obvious enough, but managers sometimes forget
that they need to recognize and capitalize on these differences to get the most
from their employees. Effective diversity management increases an organization’s access to the widest possible pool of skills, abilities, and ideas. Managers
also need to recognize that differences among people can lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict. In this chapter, we’ll learn about how

75.
Diversity
41
individual characteristics like age, gender, race, ethnicity, and abilities can influence employee performance. We’ll also see how managers can develop awareness about these characteristics and manage a diverse workforce effectively.
Demographic Characteristics of the U.S. Workforce
Progress Energy reflects the
demographic characteristics of the
U.S. workforce today. It is gender
balanced, multiethnic, and engaged
in learning about diversity issues
and putting them into practice.
Progress, which recently merged
with Duke Energy, encourages
employees to participate in various
network groups, diversity councils,
and training workshops, such as
the one shown here. The company
believes that recognizing and
embracing diversity maximize
employee potential, customer
satisfaction, and business success.
Source: Robert Willett / Raleigh News & Observer/Newscom
In the past, OB textbooks noted that rapid change was about to occur as
the predominantly white, male managerial workforce gave way to a genderbalanced, multiethnic workforce. Today, that change is no longer happening: it
has happened, and it is increasingly reflected in the makeup of managerial and
professional jobs. Compared to 1976, women today are much more likely to be
employed full-time, have more education, and earn wages comparable to those
of men.1 In addition, over the past 50 years the earnings gap between Whites
and other racial and ethnic groups has decreased significantly; past differences
between Whites and Asians have disappeared or been reversed.2 Workers over
the age of 55 are an increasingly large portion of the workforce as well. This
permanent shift toward a diverse workforce means organizations need to make
diversity management a central component of their policies and practices. At
the same time, however, differences in wages across genders and racial and ethnic groups persist, and executive positions in Fortune 500 corporations continue
to be held by white males in numbers far beyond their representation in the
workforce in general.
A survey by the Society for Human Resources Management shows some
major employer concerns and opportunities resulting from the demographic
makeup of the U.S. workforce.3 The aging of the workforce was consistently
the most significant concern of HR managers. The loss of skills resulting from
the retirement of many baby boomers, increased medical costs due to an aging
workforce, and many employees’ needs to care for elderly relatives topped the
list of issues. Other issues include developing multilingual training materials
and providing work–life benefits for dual-career couples.

76.
42
CHAPTER 2
Diversity in Organizations
Levels of Diversity
Although much has been said about diversity in age, race, gender, ethnicity,
religion, and disability status, experts now recognize that these demographic
characteristics are just the tip of the iceberg.4 Demographics mostly reflect surfacelevel diversity, not thoughts and feelings, and can lead employees to perceive one
another through stereotypes and assumptions. However, evidence has shown that as
people get to know one another, they become less concerned about demographic
differences if they see themselves as sharing more important characteristics, such as
personality and values, that represent deep-level diversity.5
To understand this difference between surface- and deep-level diversity,
consider a few examples. Luis and Carol are co-workers who seem to have little
in common at first glance. Luis is a young, recently hired male college graduate
with a business degree, raised in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Miami.
Carol is an older, long-tenured woman raised in rural Kansas, who achieved her
current level in the organization by starting as a high school graduate and working her way through the hierarchy. At first, these co-workers may experience
some differences in communication based on their surface-level differences in
education, ethnicity, regional background, and gender. However, as they get
to know one another, they may find they are both deeply committed to their
families, share a common way of thinking about important work problems, like
to work collaboratively, and are interested in international assignments in the
future. These deep-level similarities will overshadow the more superficial differences between them, and research suggests they will work well together.
On the other hand, Steve and Dave are two unmarried white male college
graduates from Oregon who recently started working together. Superficially,
they seem well matched. But Steve is highly introverted, prefers to avoid risks,
solicits the opinions of others before making decisions, and likes the office
quiet, while Dave is extroverted, risk-seeking, and assertive and likes a busy,
active, and energetic work environment. Their surface-level similarity will not
necessarily lead to positive interactions because they have such fundamental,
deep-level differences. It will be a challenge for them to collaborate regularly at
work, and they’ll have to make some compromises to get things done together.
Throughout this book, we will encounter differences between deep- and
surface-level diversity in various contexts. Individual differences in personality
and culture shape preferences for rewards, communication styles, reactions to
leaders, negotiation styles, and many other aspects of behavior in organizations.
Discrimination
2
Recognize stereotypes
and understand how they
function in organizational
settings.
Although diversity does present many opportunities for organizations, effective
diversity management also means working to eliminate unfair discrimination.
To discriminate is to note a difference between things, which in itself isn’t
necessarily bad. Noticing one employee is more qualified is necessary for making
hiring decisions; noticing another is taking on leadership responsibilities
exceptionally well is necessary for making promotion decisions. Usually when we
talk about discrimination, though, we mean allowing our behavior to be influenced by stereotypes about groups of people. Rather than looking at individual
characteristics, unfair discrimination assumes everyone in a group is the same.
This discrimination is often very harmful to organizations and employees.
Exhibit 2-1 provides definitions and examples of some forms of discrimination in organizations. Although many of these actions are prohibited by law,
and therefore aren’t part of almost any organization’s official policies, thousands of cases of employment discrimination are documented every year, and
many more go unreported. As discrimination has increasingly come under both

77.
Diversity
Exhibit 2-1
43
Forms of Discrimination
Type of Discrimination
Deﬁnition
Examples from Organizations
Discriminatory policies
or practices
Actions taken by representatives of the
organization that deny equal opportunity
to perform or unequal rewards for
performance
Unwanted sexual advances and other
verbal or physical conduct of a sexual
nature that create a hostile or offensive
work environment
Overt threats or bullying directed at
members of speciﬁc groups of employees
Jokes or negative stereotypes; sometimes
the result of jokes taken too far
Older workers may be targeted for layoffs
because they are highly paid and have lucrative
beneﬁts.
Sexual harassment
Intimidation
Mockery and insults
Exclusion
Incivility
Exclusion of certain people from job
opportunities, social events, discussions,
or informal mentoring; can occur
unintentionally
Disrespectful treatment, including
behaving in an aggressive manner,
interrupting the person, or ignoring
his or her opinions
Salespeople at one company went on company-paid
visits to strip clubs, brought strippers into the ofﬁce to
celebrate promotions, and fostered pervasive sexual
rumors.
African-American employees at some companies have
found nooses hanging over their work stations.
Arab-Americans have been asked at work whether
they were carrying bombs or were members of
terrorist organizations.
Many women in ﬁnance claim they are assigned to
marginal job roles or are given light workloads that
don’t lead to promotion.
Female lawyers note that male attorneys frequently
cut them off or do not adequately address their
comments.
Sources: J. Levitz and P. Shishkin, “More Workers Cite Age Bias after Layoffs,” The Wall Street Journal (March 11, 2009), pp. D1–D2; W. M. Bulkeley, “A Data-Storage Titan Confronts Bias Claims,”
The Wall Street Journal (September 12, 2007), pp. A1, A16; D. Walker, “Incident with Noose Stirs Old Memories,” McClatchy-Tribune Business News (June 29, 2008); D. Solis, “Racial Horror Stories
Keep EEOC Busy,” Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News, July 30, 2005, p. 1; H. Ibish and A. Stewart, Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans: The Post-September 11
Backlash, September 11, 2001—October 11, 2001 (Washington, DC: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 2003); A. Raghavan, “Wall Street’s Disappearing Women,” Forbes (March 16, 2009),
pp. 72–78; and L. M. Cortina, “Unseen Injustice: Incivility as Modern Discrimination in Organizations,” Academy of Management Review 33, no. 1 (2008), pp. 55–75.
legal scrutiny and social disapproval, most overt forms have faded, which may
have resulted in an increase in more covert forms like incivility or exclusion.6
As you can see, discrimination can occur in many ways, and its effects can be
just as varied depending on the organizational context and the personal biases
of its members. Some forms, like exclusion or incivility, are especially hard to
root out because they are impossible to observe and may occur simply because
the actor isn’t aware of the effects of his or her actions. Whether intentional
or not, discrimination can lead to serious negative consequences for employers, including reduced productivity and citizenship behavior, negative conflicts,
and increased turnover. Unfair discrimination also leaves qualified job candidates out of initial hiring and promotions. Even if an employment discrimination lawsuit is never filed, a strong business case can be made for aggressively
working to eliminate unfair discrimination.
Diversity is a broad term, and the phrase workplace diversity can refer to any
characteristic that makes people different from one another. The following
section covers some important surface-level characteristics that differentiate
members of the workforce.
surface-level diversity Differences
in easily perceived characteristics,
such as gender, race, ethnicity, age,
or disability, that do not necessarily
reflect the ways people think or
feel but that may activate certain
stereotypes.
deep-level diversity Differences
in values, personality, and work
preferences that become progressively
more important for determining
similarity as people get to know one
another better.
discrimination Noting of a difference
between things; often we refer to
unfair discrimination, which means
making judgments about individuals
based on stereotypes regarding their
demographic group.

78.
44
CHAPTER 2
Diversity in Organizations
Biographical Characteristics
3
Identify the key biographical
characteristics and describe
how they are relevant to OB.
Biographical characteristics such as age, gender, race, disability, and length of
service are some of the most obvious ways employees differ. As discussed in
Chapter 1, this textbook is essentially concerned with finding and analyzing
the variables that affect employee productivity, absence, turnover, deviance,
citizenship, and satisfaction (refer back to Exhibit 1-4). Many organizational
concepts—motivation, say, or power and politics or organizational culture—are
hard to assess. Let’s begin, then, by looking at factors that are easily definable
and readily available—data that can be obtained, for the most part, from an
employee’s human resources (HR) file. Variations in these surface-level characteristics may be the basis for discrimination against classes of employees, so
it is worth knowing how closely related they actually are to important work outcomes. Many are not as important as people believe, and far more variation
occurs within groups sharing biographical characteristics than between them.
Age
Older employees are an integral
part of the workforce at Publix
Supermarkets, where one in five
employees is over the age of 50.
The company values the work ethic
and maturity of its senior associates
like the man shown here preparing
salmon pinwheels for customers
to sample. Publix is known for its
employment of senior citizens and
actively recruits older workers as
part of its corporate philosophy
of providing a diverse work place.
The company believes that older
workers have a strong work ethic,
many skills, and job knowledge
that they can share with younger
co-workers.
Source: s70/ZUMA Press/Newscom
The relationship between age and job performance is likely to be an issue
of increasing importance during the next decade for at least three reasons.
First, belief is widespread that job performance declines with increasing age.
Regardless of whether this is true, a lot of people believe it and act on it. Second,
as noted in Chapter 1, the workforce is aging. Many employers recognize that
older workers represent a huge potential pool of high-quality applicants.
Companies such as Borders and the Vanguard Group have sought to increase
their attractiveness to older workers by providing targeted training that meets
their needs, and by offering flexible work schedules and part-time work to draw
in those who are semi-retired.7 The third reason is U.S. legislation that, for all
intents and purposes, outlaws mandatory retirement. Most U.S. workers today
no longer have to retire at age 70.

79.
Biographical Characteristics
45
What is the perception of older workers? Employers hold mixed feelings.8
They see a number of positive qualities older workers bring to their jobs, such
as experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality.
But older workers are also perceived as lacking flexibility and resisting new
technology. And when organizations are actively seeking individuals who are
adaptable and open to change, the negatives associated with age clearly hinder
the initial hiring of older workers and increase the likelihood they will be let go
during cutbacks.
Now let’s take a look at the evidence. What effect does age actually have
on turnover, absenteeism, productivity, and satisfaction? The older you get,
the less likely you are to quit your job. That conclusion is based on studies of
the age–turnover relationship.9 Of course, this shouldn’t be too surprising. As
workers get older, they have fewer alternative job opportunities as their skills
have become more specialized to certain types of work. Their long tenure also
tends to provide them with higher wage rates, longer paid vacations, and more
attractive pension benefits.
It’s tempting to assume that age is also inversely related to absenteeism. After
all, if older workers are less likely to quit, won’t they also demonstrate higher
stability by coming to work more regularly? Not necessarily. Most studies do show
an inverse relationship, but close examination finds it is partially a function of
whether the absence is avoidable or unavoidable.10 In general, older employees
have lower rates of avoidable absence than do younger employees. However,
they have equal rates of unavoidable absence, such as sickness absences.
How does age affect productivity? Many believe productivity declines with
age. It is often assumed that skills like speed, agility, strength, and coordination
decay over time and that prolonged job boredom and lack of intellectual
stimulation contribute to reduced productivity. The evidence, however,
contradicts those assumptions. During a 3-year period, a large hardware chain
staffed one of its stores solely with employees over age 50 and compared its
results with those of five stores with younger employees. The store staffed by
the over-50 employees was significantly more productive (in terms of sales
generated against labor costs) than two of the stores and held its own against
the other three.11 Other reviews of the research find that age and job task
performance are unrelated and that older workers are more likely to engage in
citizenship behavior.12
Our final concern is the relationship between age and job satisfaction, where
the evidence is mixed. A review of more than 800 studies found that older workers tend to be more satisfied with their work, report better relationships with
co-workers, and are more committed to their employing organizations.13 Other
studies, however, have found a U-shaped relationship.14 Several explanations
could clear up these results, the most plausible being that these studies are
intermixing professional and nonprofessional employees. When we separate
the two types, satisfaction tends to continually increase among professionals as
they age, whereas it falls among nonprofessionals during middle age and then
rises again in the later years.
biographical characteristics Personal
characteristics—such as age, gender,
race, and length of tenure—that
are objective and easily obtained
from personnel records. These
characteristics are representative
of surface-level diversity.

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What are the effects of discrimination against individuals on the basis of
age? One large-scale study of more than 8,000 employees in 128 companies
found that an organizational climate favoring age discrimination was associated
with lower levels of commitment to the company. This lower commitment was,
in turn, related to lower levels of organizational performance.15 Such results
suggest that combating age discrimination may be associated with higher levels
of organizational performance.
Sex
Few issues initiate more debates, misconceptions, and unsupported opinions
than whether women perform as well on jobs as men do.
The best place to begin to consider this is with the recognition that few,
if any, important differences between men and women affect job performance. There are no consistent male–female differences in problem-solving
ability, analytical skills, competitive drive, motivation, sociability, or learning ability.16 Psychological studies have found women are more agreeable
and willing to conform to authority, whereas men are more aggressive and
more likely to have expectations of success, but those differences are minor.
Given the significantly increased female participation in the workforce over
the past 40 years and the rethinking of what constitutes male and female
roles, we can assume no significant difference in job productivity between
men and women.17
Unfortunately, sex roles still affect our perceptions. For example, women
who succeed in traditionally male domains are perceived as less likable, more
hostile, and less desirable as supervisors.18 Interestingly, research also suggests
that women believe sex-based discrimination is more prevalent than do male
employees, and these beliefs are especially pronounced among women who
work with a large proportion of men.19
One issue that does seem to differ between men and women, especially
when the employee has preschool-age children, is preference for work schedules.20 Working mothers are more likely to prefer part-time work, flexible
work schedules, and telecommuting in order to accommodate their family responsibilities. Women also prefer jobs that encourage work–life balance, which has the effect of limiting their options for career advancement.
An interview study showed many of the work–life issues found in U.S. business contexts are also common in France, despite government subsidies for
child care.21
What about absence and turnover rates? Are women less stable employees
than men? First, evidence from a study of nearly 500,000 professional employees indicates significant differences, with women more likely to turn over than
men.22 Women also have higher rates of absenteeism than men do.23 The most
logical explanation is that the research was conducted in North America, and
North American culture has historically placed home and family responsibilities on women. When a child is ill or someone needs to stay home to wait for
a plumber, the woman has traditionally taken time from work. However, this
research is also undoubtedly time-bound.24 The role of women has definitely
changed over the past generation. Men are increasingly sharing responsibility
for child care, and an increasing number report feeling a conflict between their
home responsibilities and their work lives.25 One interesting finding is that
regardless of sex, parents were rated lower in job commitment, achievement
striving, and dependability than individuals without children, but mothers were
rated especially low in competence.26
Again, it is worth asking what the implications of sex discrimination are for
individuals. Research has shown that workers who experience sexual harassment

81.
Biographical Characteristics
OB Poll
47
Sexual Harassment Claims by Men
Sexual Harassment Claims Filed by Men in Selected States
35
32.2
33.3
2007
27.3
23.0
26.6
25
20
2009
24.0
30
21.7
18.7
16.6
15
10
9.5
5
0
Utah
West Virginia
Michigan
Wyoming
Wisconsin
Sources: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; D. Mattioli, “More Men Make Harassment Claims,” The Wall Street Journal (March 23, 2010), p. D4.
have higher levels of psychological stress, and these feelings in turn are related
to lower levels of organizational commitment and job satisfaction, and higher
intentions to turn over.27 As with age discrimination, the evidence suggests that
combating sex discrimination may be associated with better performance for the
organization as a whole.
Myth or Science?
“Dual-Career Couples Divorce Less”
T
his statement is mostly false.
A recent large-scale study of
married couples in the United
States, the United Kingdom, and
Germany found that in all three countries
whether a wife worked outside the
home, and what she earned if she did,
had no effect on divorce rates. The
authors of this study conclude: “In no
country did a wife’s employment or
relative earnings significantly increase
the risk of dissolution.” Thus, it appears
that social critics on both the left
(dual-career couples have healthier,
happier marriages) and the right (a
traditional male working, wife at home
family structure is best) are wrong. Still,
this is a complex issue, and research on
it continues.
What about whether the husband
works outside the home? Historically,
this was quite unusual, but it is
becoming increasingly common—
wives are now the primary breadwinner
in 22 percent of U.S. couples, up from
7 percent in 1970. There is some evidence that men are less healthy and
marriages are more likely to fail when
men do not work outside the home, or
when they become unemployed while
their wives continue to work. As one
researcher noted, many married men
ask themselves, “What is my value
here if I’m not bringing in money?” One
Canadian working mother, the primary
breadwinner in her family, says, “There
is a part of me that wonders if I can
trust, if it’s safe for me to take my foot
off the gas, to hold back and relax, not
be thinking and working all the time.”
Sources: L. P. P. Cooke, “Wives’ Part-time
Employment and Marital Stability in Great
Britain, West Germany and the United
States,” Sociology 44, no. 6 (2010),
pp. 1091–1108; T. Parker-Pope, “She Works.
They’re Happy.” The New York Times
(January 24, 2010), pp. ST1, ST10; and
S. Proudfoot, “More Women Bringing Home
the Bacon, More Men Cooking It,” National
Post (October 7, 2010), www.canada.com/.

82.
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CHAPTER 2
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Race and Ethnicity
Race is a controversial issue. In many cases, even bringing up the topic of race
and ethnicity is enough to create an uncomfortable silence. Indeed, evidence
suggests that some people find interacting with other racial groups uncomfortable unless there are clear behavioral scripts to guide their behavior.28
Most people in the United States identify themselves according to racial group.
The U.S. Bureau of the Census classifies individuals according to seven broad
racial categories: American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African
American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Some Other Race, White,
and Two or More Races. An ethnicity distinction is also made between native
English speakers and Hispanics: Hispanics can be of any race. We define race in
this book as the biological heritage people use to identify themselves; ethnicity is
the additional set of cultural characteristics that often overlaps with race. This
definition allows each individual to define his or her race and ethnicity.
Race and ethnicity have been studied as they relate to employment outcomes such as hiring decisions, performance evaluations, pay, and workplace
discrimination. Most research has concentrated on the differences in outcomes
and attitudes between Whites and African Americans, with little study of issues
relevant to Asian, Native American, and Hispanic populations. Doing justice to
all this research isn’t possible here, so let’s summarize a few points.
First, in employment settings, individuals tend to slightly favor colleagues
of their own race in performance evaluations, promotion decisions, and pay
raises, although such differences are not found consistently, especially when
highly structured methods of decision making are employed.29 Second, substantial racial differences exist in attitudes toward affirmative action, with African
Americans approving of such programs to a greater degree than Whites.30
This difference may reflect the fact that African Americans and Hispanics perceive discrimination to be more prevalent in the workplace.31 Third, African
Americans generally fare worse than Whites in employment decisions. They
receive lower ratings in employment interviews, receive lower job performance
ratings, are paid less, and are promoted less frequently.32 Yet there are no
statistically significant differences between African Americans and Whites in
observed absence rates, applied social skills at work, or accident rates. African
Americans and Hispanics also have higher turnover rates than Whites.
Employers’ major concern about using mental-ability tests for selection,
promotion, training, and similar employment decisions is that they may have a
negative impact on racial and ethnic groups.33 However, evidence suggests that
“despite group differences in mean test performance, there is little convincing
evidence that well-constructed tests are more predictive of educational, training, or occupational performance for members of the majority group than for
members of minority groups.”34 Observed differences in IQ test scores by racial
or ethnic group are smaller in more recent samples.35 The issue of racial differences in general mental-ability tests continues to be hotly debated.36
Does racial and ethnic discrimination lead to negative workplace outcomes?
As noted earlier, most research shows that members of racial and ethnic
minorities report higher levels of discrimination in the workplace.37 Some
research suggests that having a positive climate for diversity overall can lead to
increased sales.38
Disability
With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, the
representation of individuals with disabilities in the U.S. workforce rapidly
increased.39 According to the ADA, employers are required to make reasonable

83.
Biographical Characteristics
49
Source: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Microsoft views employees with
disabilities as valuable assets
because they help ensure that the
company’s products and services
meet all customer needs. At
the Microsoft Accessibility Lab,
employees can experience assistive
technologies and ergonomic
hardware designs that enable
them to be more productive. Kelly
Ford, who has been blind since
birth, is shown here in the lab
testing accessibility features of
the Windows operating system.
Ford also manages a team that is
working on improving Web page
browsing for all users, not just for
people with disabilities.
accommodations so their workplaces will be accessible to individuals with physical or mental disabilities.
Making inferences about the relationship between disability and employment outcomes is difficult because the term disability is so broad. The U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission classifies a person as disabled
who has any physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or
more major life activities. Examples include missing limbs, seizure disorder,
Down Syndrome, deafness, schizophrenia, alcoholism, diabetes, and chronic
back pain. These conditions share almost no common features, so there’s no
generalization about how each condition is related to employment. Some jobs
obviously cannot be accommodated to some disabilities—the law and common
sense recognize that a blind person could not be a bus driver, a person with
severe cerebral palsy could not be a surgeon, and a person with profound
mobility constraints probably could not be a police patrol officer. However,
the increasing presence of computer technology and other adaptive devices is
shattering many traditional barriers to employment.
One of the most controversial aspects of the ADA is the provision that
requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for people with
psychiatric disabilities.40 Most people have very strong biases against those with
mental illnesses, who are therefore reluctant to disclose this information to
employers. Many who do, report negative consequences.
The impact of disabilities on employment outcomes has been explored from
a variety of perspectives. On the one hand, a review of the evidence suggests
workers with disabilities receive higher performance evaluations. However,
this same review found that despite their higher performance, individuals with
disabilities tend to encounter lower performance expectations and are less
likely to be hired.41 These negative effects are much stronger for individuals
with mental disabilities, and there is some evidence to suggest mental disabilities
may impair performance more than physical disabilities: Individuals with such
common mental health issues as depression and anxiety are significantly more
likely to be absent from work.42

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Several studies have examined participants who received résumés that were
identical, except that some mentioned a disability. The résumés that mentioned
mental illness or a physical disability were associated with much lower ratings
for perceived employability, especially in jobs requiring a great deal of personal
contact with the public.43 Employability ratings for individuals with mental
illnesses were especially low. Similarly, when given randomly manipulated
academic portfolios, students preferred not to work with individuals who
had a learning disability even though there were no effects of disability on
performance ratings or expectations.44
Contrast these selection-oriented results with studies showing that the
accomplishments of those with disabilities are often rated as more impressive
than the same accomplishments in people without disabilities. Participants
watched three individuals completing a carpentry task, one of whom was
described as having recently been hospitalized for a debilitating mental illness.45
The raters consistently gave that person higher performance ratings. In this
case, it may be that disabled individuals were being treated as an outgroup in
need of special help. Similarly, when disability status is randomly manipulated
among hypothetical candidates, disabled individuals are rated as having
superior personal qualities like dependability and potency.46
Other Biographical Characteristics: Tenure, Religion,
Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity
The last set of biographical characteristics we’ll look at includes tenure, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Tenure Except for gender and racial differences, few issues are more subject to
misconceptions and speculations than the impact of seniority on job performance.
Extensive reviews have been conducted of the seniority–productivity
relationship.47 If we define seniority as time on a particular job, the most recent
evidence demonstrates a positive relationship between seniority and job
productivity. So tenure, expressed as work experience, appears to be a good
predictor of employee productivity.
The research relating tenure to absence is quite straightforward. Studies
consistently show seniority to be negatively related to absenteeism.48 In fact,
in terms of both frequency of absence and total days lost at work, tenure is the
single most important explanatory variable.49
Tenure is also a potent variable in explaining turnover. The longer a person
is in a job, the less likely he or she is to quit.50 Moreover, consistent with research
suggesting past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, evidence
indicates tenure at an employee’s previous job is a powerful predictor of that
employee’s future turnover.51
Evidence indicates tenure and job satisfaction are positively related.52 In
fact, when age and tenure are treated separately, tenure appears a more consistent and stable predictor of job satisfaction than age.
Religion Not only do religious and nonreligious people question each other’s
belief systems; often people of different religious faiths conflict. As the war in
Iraq and the past conflict in Northern Ireland demonstrate, violent differences
can erupt among sects of the same religion. U.S. federal law prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on their religion, with very few
exceptions. However, that doesn’t mean religion is a nonissue in OB.
Perhaps the greatest religious diversity issue in the United States today
revolves around Islam. There are nearly 2 million Muslims in the United States,

85.
Biographical Characteristics
51
An Ethical Choice
Religious Tattoos
C
onsidering
situation . . .
the
following
Edward practices the Kemetic religion,
based on ancient Egyptian faith, and
affiliates himself with a tribe numbering fewer than ten members. He states
that he believes in various deities and
follows the faith’s concept of Ma’at, a
guiding principle regarding truth and
order that represents physical and
moral balance in the universe. During
a religious ceremony he received small
tattoos encircling his wrist, written in
the Coptic language, which express
his servitude to Ra, the Egyptian god
of the sun. When his employer asks
him to cover the tattoos, he explains
that it is a sin to cover them intentionally because doing so would signify a
rejection of Ra.
If you were Edward’s employer, how
would you respond to his request? If
several valued customers objected to
Edward’s tattoos, would it affect your
response?
It may surprise you to learn that
the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), the chief regulatory agency that enforces laws against
workplace discrimination, holds that
Edward’s employer may not ask him to
cover his tattoos. The seeming strangeness of Edward’s religious views is
not legally relevant. The EEOC notes,
“These can be religious beliefs and practices even if no one else or few other
people subscribe to them.” If Edward’s
tattoos did not emanate from sincere
religious beliefs, however, the employer
could ask him to cover them.
The upshot: Diversity, ethics, and
legal compliance are not always the
same thing. Sometimes what is legal
is not what you might do, and sometimes what you might do is not legal.
Source: N. C. Earp, “Unique Belief Can
Be Religious,” EEOC Compliance Manual
(downloaded April 27, 2011), www.eeoc
.gov/policy/docs/religion.html.
and across the world Islam is one of the most popular religions. There are a
wide variety of perspectives on Islam. As one Islamic scholar has noted, “There
is no such thing as a single American Muslim community, much as there is no
single Christian community. Muslims vary hugely by ethnicity, faith, tradition,
education, income, and degree of religious observance.”53 For the most part,
U.S. Muslims have attitudes similar to those of other U.S. citizens (though the
differences tend to be greater for younger U.S. Muslims). Still, there are both
perceived and real differences. Nearly four in ten U.S. adults admit they harbor
negative feelings or prejudices toward U.S. Muslims, and 52 percent believe
U.S. Muslims are not respectful of women. Some take these general biases a
step further. Motaz Elshafi, a 28-year-old software engineer for Cisco Systems,
born and raised in New Jersey, received an e-mail from a co-worker addressed
“Dear Terrorist.” Research has shown that job applicants in Muslim-identified
religious attire who applied for hypothetical retail jobs in the United States had
shorter, more interpersonally negative interviews than applicants who did not
wear Muslim-identified attire.54
Faith can be an employment issue when religious beliefs prohibit or encourage certain behaviors. Based on their religious beliefs, some pharmacists refuse
to hand out RU-486, the “morning after” abortion pill. Many Christians do not
believe they should work on Sundays, and many conservative Jews believe they
should not work on Saturdays. Religious individuals may also believe they have
an obligation to express their beliefs in the workplace, and those who do not
share those beliefs may object. Perhaps as a result of different perceptions of
religion’s role in the workplace, religious discrimination claims have been a
growing source of discrimination claims in the United States.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Employers differ widely in their treatment of sexual orientation. Federal law does not prohibit discrimination against

86.
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CHAPTER 2
Diversity in Organizations
employees based on sexual orientation, though many states and municipalities
do. In general, observers note that even in the absence of federal legislation
requiring nondiscrimination, many organizations have implemented policies
and procedures protecting employees on the basis of sexual orientation.55
Raytheon, builder of Tomahawk cruise missiles and other defense systems,
offers domestic-partner benefits, supports a wide array of gay rights groups, and
wants to be an employer of choice for gays. The firm believes these policies give it
an advantage in the ever-competitive market for engineers and scientists. Raytheon
is not alone. More than half the Fortune 500 companies offer domestic-partner
benefits for gay couples, including American Express, IBM, Intel, Morgan Stanley,
Motorola, and Walmart. Some companies oppose domestic-partner benefits or
nondiscrimination clauses for gay employees. Among these are Alltel, ADM,
ExxonMobil, H. J. Heinz, Nissan, Nestlé, and Rubbermaid.56 Despite some gains,
many lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees keep their gender identity from their
co-workers for fear of being discriminated against.57
As for gender identity, companies are increasingly putting in place policies
to govern how their organization treats employees who change genders (often
called transgender employees). In 2001, only eight companies in the Fortune 500 had
policies on gender identity. By 2006, that number had swelled to 124. IBM is one
of them. Brad Salavich, a diversity manager for IBM, says, “We believe that having
strong transgender and gender identification policies is a natural extension of
IBM’s corporate culture.” Dealing with transgender employees requires some
special considerations, such as for bathrooms, employee names, and so on.58
Ability
We’ve so far covered surface characteristics unlikely, on their own, to directly
relate to job performance. Now we turn to deep-level abilities that are closely
related to job performance. Contrary to what we were taught in grade school,
we weren’t all created equal in our abilities. Most people are to the left or the
right of the median on some normally distributed ability curve. For example,
regardless of how motivated you are, it’s unlikely you can act as well as Scarlett
Johansson, play basketball as well as LeBron James, write as well as J. K. Rowling,
or play the guitar as well as Pat Metheny. Of course, just because we aren’t all
equal in abilities does not imply that some individuals are inherently inferior.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses that make him or her relatively superior or inferior to others in performing certain tasks or activities. From management’s standpoint, the issue is not whether people differ in terms of their
abilities. They clearly do. The issue is using the knowledge that people differ to
increase the likelihood an employee will perform his or her job well.
What does ability mean? As we use the term, ability is an individual’s current
capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. Overall abilities are essentially
made up of two sets of factors: intellectual and physical.
Intellectual Abilities
4
Define intellectual ability
and demonstrate its
relevance to OB.
Intellectual abilities are abilities needed to perform mental activities—thinking,
reasoning, and problem solving. Most societies place a high value on intelligence,
and for good reason. Smart people generally earn more money and attain
higher levels of education. They are also more likely to emerge as leaders of

87.
Ability
Exhibit 2-2
53
Dimensions of Intellectual Ability
Dimension
Description
Job Example
Number aptitude
Ability to do speedy and accurate
arithmetic
Ability to understand what is read
or heard and the relationship of
words to each other
Ability to identify visual similarities
and differences quickly and
accurately
Ability to identify a logical sequence
in a problem and then solve the
problem
Accountant: Computing the sales tax on a set of items
Verbal comprehension
Perceptual speed
Inductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning
Spatial visualization
Memory
Ability to use logic and assess the
implications of an argument
Ability to imagine how an object
would look if its position in space
were changed
Ability to retain and recall past
experiences
Plant manager: Following corporate policies on hiring
Fire investigator: Identifying clues to support a charge of arson
Market researcher: Forecasting demand for a product in the
next time period
Supervisor: Choosing between two different suggestions
offered by employees
Interior decorator: Redecorating an office
Salesperson: Remembering the names of customers
groups. Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, for example, are designed to ascertain
a person’s general intellectual abilities. So, too, are popular college admission
tests, such as the SAT and ACT and graduate admission tests in business
(GMAT), law (LSAT), and medicine (MCAT). Testing firms don’t claim their
tests assess intelligence, but experts know they do.59 The seven most frequently
cited dimensions making up intellectual abilities are number aptitude, verbal
comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning,
spatial visualization, and memory.60 Exhibit 2-2 describes these dimensions.
Intelligence dimensions are positively related, so if you score high on verbal
comprehension, for example, you’re more likely to also score high on spatial
visualization. The correlations aren’t perfect, meaning people do have specific
abilities that predict important work-related outcomes when considered
individually.61 However, they are high enough that researchers also recognize a
general factor of intelligence, general mental ability (GMA). Evidence strongly
supports the idea that the structures and measures of intellectual abilities
generalize across cultures. Thus, someone in Venezuela or Sudan does not
have a different set of mental abilities than a U.S. or Czech worker. There is
some evidence that IQ scores vary to some degree across cultures, but those
differences are much smaller when we take into account educational and
economic differences.62
Jobs differ in the demands they place on intellectual abilities. The more
complex a job in terms of information-processing demands, the more general
intelligence and verbal abilities will be necessary to perform successfully.63
ability An individual’s capacity to
intellectual abilities The capacity
general mental ability (GMA) An
perform the various tasks in a job.
to do mental activities—thinking,
reasoning, and problem solving.
overall factor of intelligence, as
suggested by the positive correlations
among specific intellectual ability
dimensions.

88.
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CHAPTER 2
Diversity in Organizations
glOBalization!
Images of Diversity from Around the Globe
A
national identities, the country’s leaders have also prioritized these celebrations as a moment to emphasize the
shared identity of being Singaporean.
Brazil is a similarly diverse country; the
major demographic groups addressed
by Brazilian diversity policies include
African descendant, European descendant, and Asian descendant, as well as
disability status. Research suggests
that diversity programs are relatively
new to Brazil compared to Europe and
North America, but companies are
coming to see diversity management
as a major component of their human
resources systems. In India, diversity
management often means addressing
differences in social class and caste
that do not arise in other countries,
with affirmative action programs mandating the number of individuals from
lower castes who must be included in
management positions for some types
of organizations.
Multinational organizations will have
to carefully consider how to create
diversity strategies given the variety
s economic globalization
continues to expand, the very
idea of diversity management
must expand to include a diversity
of cultures and situations. Attitudes
toward diversity programs range
greatly across countries, with the
idea of what constitutes a “diverse”
workforce differing by culture and
the demography of the country. The
role of women in the workplace also
varies, with some countries valuing
sexual equality more than others.
Other categories of diversity, like
sexual orientation, are not recognized
in some countries but are important
elements of the diversity picture in
others. A consideration of three international examples helps illustrate how
diverse diversity programs can be.
In Singapore, diversity has become
part of the national agenda. On “Racial
Harmony Day,” street carnivals are
held to celebrate the nation’s unique
status as a crossroads of Chinese,
Malay, Indian, and other cultures.
Besides applauding these distinct
of perspectives on diversity across
countries. Many countries require
specific targets and quotas for achieving affirmative action goals, whereas
the legal framework in the United
States specifically forbids their use.
Some countries have strong prohibitions on sexual harassment, whereas
in other countries behavior unacceptable in U.S. workplaces is common.
Effectively managing diversity in
multinational organizations is clearly a
challenge of the global marketplace.
Sources: Based on D. P. S. Goh, “State
Carnivals and the Subvention of Multiculturalism in Singapore,” The British
Journal of Sociology 62 (2011), pp. 111–133;
C. J. C. Jabbour, F. S. Gordono,
J. H. C. de Olivera, J. C. Martinez, and
R. A. G. Battistelle, “Diversity Management:
Challenges, Benefits, and the Role of
Human Resource Management in Brazilian
Organizations,” Equality, Diversity, and
Inclusion: An International Journal 30 (2011),
pp. 58–74; and F. L. Cooke and D. S. Saini,
“Diversity Management in India: A Study of
Organizations in Different Ownership Forms
and Industrial Sectors,” Human Resource
Management 49 (2010), pp. 477–500.
Where employee behavior is highly routine and there are few or no opportunities to exercise discretion, a high IQ is not as important to performing well.
However, that does not mean people with high IQs cannot have an impact on
traditionally less complex jobs.
It might surprise you that the most widely used intelligence test in hiring
decisions takes only 12 minutes to complete. It’s the Wonderlic Cognitive
Ability Test. There are different forms, and each has 50 questions. Here are a
few examples:
●
●
When rope is selling at $0.10 a foot, how many feet can you buy for $0.60?
Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one:
1. True.
2. False.
3. Not certain.
a. The boy plays baseball.
b. All baseball players wear hats.
c. The boy wears a hat.
The Wonderlic measures both speed (almost nobody has time to answer
every question) and power (questions get harder as you go along), so the

89.
Ability
55
average score is pretty low—about 21/50. And because it is able to provide valid
information cheaply (for $5 to $10/applicant), more companies are using the
Wonderlic in hiring decisions. The Factory Card & Party Outlet, with 182 stores
nationwide, uses it. So do Subway, Peoples Flowers, Security Alarm, Workforce
Employment Solutions, and many others. Most of these companies don’t give up
other hiring tools, such as application forms or interviews. Rather, they add the
Wonderlic for its ability to provide valid data on applicants’ intelligence levels.
Interestingly, while intelligence is a big help in performing a job well, it
doesn’t make people happier or more satisfied with their jobs. The correlation
between intelligence and job satisfaction is about zero. Why? Research suggests
that although intelligent people perform better and tend to have more interesting jobs, they are also more critical when evaluating their job conditions. Thus,
smart people have it better, but they also expect more.64
Physical Abilities
5
Contrast intellectual and
physical ability.
Though the changing nature of work suggests intellectual abilities are increasingly important for many jobs, physical abilities have been and will
remain valuable. Research on hundreds of jobs has identified nine basic
abilities needed in the performance of physical tasks.65 These are described
in Exhibit 2-3. Individuals differ in the extent to which they have each of
these abilities. Not surprisingly, there is also little relationship among them:
a high score on one is no assurance of a high score on others. High employee
performance is likely to be achieved when management has ascertained the
extent to which a job requires each of the nine abilities and then ensures that
employees in that job have those abilities.
Exhibit 2-3
Nine Basic Physical Abilities
Strength Factors
1. Dynamic strength
2. Trunk strength
3. Static strength
4. Explosive strength
Ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continuously
over time
Ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk
(particularly abdominal) muscles
Ability to exert force against external objects
Ability to expend a maximum of energy in one or a series of
explosive acts
Flexibility Factors
5. Extent flexibility
Ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible
6. Dynamic flexibility
Ability to make rapid, repeated flexing movements
Other Factors
7. Body coordination
Ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different
parts of the body
8. Balance
Ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off
balance
Ability to continue maximum effort requiring prolonged
effort over time
9. Stamina
physical abilities The capacity to do
tasks that demand stamina, dexterity,
strength, and similar characteristics.

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The Role of Disabilities
The importance of ability at work obviously creates problems when we attempt
to formulate workplace policies that recognize diversity in terms of disability
status. As we have noted, recognizing that individuals have different abilities
that can be taken into account when making hiring decisions is not problematic.
However, it is discriminatory to make blanket assumptions about people on the
basis of a disability. It is also possible to make accommodations for disabilities.
Implementing Diversity Management Strategies
MyManagementLab
For an interactive application of this
topic, check out this chapter’s
simulation activity at
www.mymanagementlab.com.
Having discussed a variety of ways in which people differ, we now look at how
a manager can and should manage these differences. Diversity management
makes everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of
others. This definition highlights the fact that diversity programs include and
are meant for everyone. Diversity is much more likely to be successful when we
see it as everyone’s business than if we believe it helps only certain groups of
employees.
Attracting, Selecting, Developing,
and Retaining Diverse Employees
One method of enhancing workforce diversity is to target recruiting messages to
specific demographic groups underrepresented in the workforce. This means
placing advertisements in publications geared toward specific demographic
groups; recruiting at colleges, universities, and other institutions with significant
numbers of underrepresented minorities; and forming partnerships with
associations like the Society for Women Engineers or the Graduate Minority
Business Association. These efforts can be successful, and research has shown
that women and minorities do have greater interest in employers that make
special efforts to highlight a commitment to diversity in their recruiting
materials. Advertisements depicting groups of diverse employees are seen as
more attractive to women and racioethnic minorities, which is probably why
most organizations depict workforce diversity prominently in their recruiting
materials. Diversity advertisements that fail to show women and minorities
in positions of organizational leadership send a negative message about the
diversity climate at an organization.66
The selection process is one of the most important places to apply diversity
efforts. Managers who hire need to value fairness and objectivity in selecting
employees and focus on the productive potential of new recruits. Fortunately,
ensuring that hiring is bias-free does appear to work. Where managers use
a well-defined protocol for assessing applicant talent and the organization
clearly prioritizes nondiscrimination policies, qualifications become far more
important in determining who gets hired than demographic characteristics.67
Organizations that do not discourage discriminatory behavior are more likely
to see problems.
Similarity in personality appears to affect career advancement. Those whose
personality traits are similar to those of their co-workers are more likely to be
promoted than those whose personalities are different.68 There’s an important
qualifier to these results: in collectivistic cultures, similarity to supervisors is
more important for predicting advancement, whereas in individualistic cultures,

91.
Implementing Diversity Management Strategies
57
Source: AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara
In Japan, Nissan Motor Company
is helping female employees
develop their careers at the
firm’s manufacturing plants and
car dealerships. Nissan provides
women, such as the assembly-line
worker shown here, with training
programs to develop skills and the
one-on-one counseling services of
career advisors. Nissan also posts
career interviews on its corporate
intranet with women who have
made significant contributions
to the company and serve as role
models for other female employees.
For Nissan, developing the talents
of women is a strategic imperative
for its business success.
similarity to peers is more important. Once again, deep-level diversity factors
appear to be more important in shaping people’s reactions to one another than
surface-level characteristics.
Evidence from a study of more than 6,000 workers in a major retail organization indicated that in stores with a less supportive diversity climate, African
Americans or Hispanics made significantly fewer sales than White employees,
but when the diversity climate was positive, Hispanics and Whites sold about the
same amount and African Americans made more sales than Whites.69 Whites
sold about the same amount whether there was a positive diversity climate or
not, but African Americans and Hispanics sold far more when there was. There
are obvious bottom-line implications of this research: stores that fostered a
positive diversity climate were able to capitalize on their diverse workforce and
make more money.
Some data suggest individuals who are demographically different from their
co-workers are more likely to feel low commitment and to turn over: women are
more likely to turn over from predominantly male work groups and men from
predominantly female work groups; non-Whites are more likely to turn over
from predominantly White work groups and Whites from predominantly nonWhite work groups.70 However, this behavior is more prominent among new
hires. After people become better acquainted with one another, demographic
differences are less consistently related to turnover. One very large-scale study
showed a positive diversity climate was related to higher organizational commitment and lower turnover intentions among African-American, Hispanic, and
White managers.71 In other words, all workers appeared to prefer an organization that values diversity.
diversity management The process
and programs by which managers
make everyone more aware of and
sensitive to the needs and differences
of others.

92.
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CHAPTER 2
Diversity in Organizations
Diversity in Groups
Most contemporary workplaces require extensive work in group settings. When
people work in groups, they need to establish a common way of looking at
and accomplishing the major tasks, and they need to communicate with one
another often. If they feel little sense of membership and cohesion in their
groups, all these group attributes are likely to suffer.
Does diversity help or hurt group performance? The answer is “yes.” In
some cases, diversity in traits can hurt team performance, whereas in others it
can facilitate it.72 Whether diverse or homogeneous teams are more effective
depends on the characteristic of interest. Demographic diversity (in gender,
race, and ethnicity) does not appear to either help or hurt team performance
in general. On the other hand, teams of individuals who are highly intelligent,
conscientious, and interested in working in team settings are more effective.
Thus diversity on these variables is likely to be a bad thing—it makes little sense
to try to form teams that mix in members who are lower in intelligence, conscientiousness, and uninterested in teamwork. In other cases, differences can be a
strength. Groups of individuals with different types of expertise and education
are more effective than homogeneous groups. Similarly, a group made entirely
of assertive people who want to be in charge, or a group whose members all
prefer to follow the lead of others, will be less effective than a group that mixes
leaders and followers.
Regardless of the composition of the group, differences can be leveraged
to achieve superior performance. The most important way is to emphasize the
higher-level similarities among members.73 In other words, groups of diverse
individuals will be much more effective if leaders can show how members have
a common interest in the group’s success. Evidence also shows transformational
leaders (who emphasize higher-order goals and values in their leadership style)
are more effective in managing diverse teams.74
Effective Diversity Programs
6
Describe how organizations
manage diversity effectively.
Organizations use a variety of efforts to capitalize on diversity, including the
recruiting and selection policies we have already discussed, as well as training
and development practices. Effective, comprehensive workforce programs
encouraging diversity have three distinct components. First, they teach
managers about the legal framework for equal employment opportunity
and encourage fair treatment of all people regardless of their demographic
characteristics. Second, they teach managers how a diverse workforce will be
better able to serve a diverse market of customers and clients. Third, they foster
personal development practices that bring out the skills and abilities of all
workers, acknowledging how differences in perspective can be a valuable way to
improve performance for everyone.75
Much concern about diversity has to do with fair treatment.76 Most negative
reactions to employment discrimination are based on the idea that discriminatory treatment is unfair. Regardless of race or gender, people are generally in
favor of diversity-oriented programs, including affirmative action, if they believe
the policies ensure everyone a fair opportunity to show their skills and abilities.
A major study of the consequences of diversity programs came to what might
seem a surprising conclusion.77 Organizations that provided diversity training were not consistently more likely to have women and minorities in upper
management positions than organizations that did not. On closer examination
though, these results are not surprising. Experts have long known that one-shot
training sessions without strategies to encourage effective diversity management back on the job are not likely to be very effective. Some diversity programs

93.
Implementing Diversity Management Strategies
59
Source: Chuck Burton/AP Images
NASCAR, an American sport with
a worldwide following, promotes
diversity within its organization
and throughout the motorsports
industry. Through its Drive to
Diversity program, NASCAR ensures
that everyone is given a fair
opportunity to show and develop
his or her skills and abilities. The
program seeks to develop minority
and female drivers and crew
members as shown in this photo.
Drivers participate in a scouting
combine and earn the chance
to compete with an established
NASCAR team for a full season. And
after completing their training,
crew member trainees can compete
with a racing team.
are truly effective in improving representation in management. They include
strategies to measure the representation of women and minorities in managerial
positions, and they hold managers accountable for achieving more demographically diverse management teams. Researchers also suggest that diversity experiences are more likely to lead to positive adaptation for all parties if (1) the
diversity experience undermines stereotypical attitudes, (2) if the perceiver is
motivated and able to consider a new perspective on others, (3) if the perceiver
engages in stereotype suppression and generative thought in response to the
diversity experience, and (4) if the positive experience of stereotype undermining is repeated frequently.78 Diversity programs based on these principles are
likely to be more effective than traditional classroom learning.
Organizational leaders should examine their workforce to determine
whether target groups have been underutilized. If groups of employees are
not proportionally represented in top management, managers should look
for any hidden barriers to advancement. They can often improve recruiting
practices, make selection systems more transparent, and provide training for
those employees who have not had adequate exposure to certain material
in the past. The organization should also clearly communicate its policies to
employees so they can understand how and why certain practices are followed.
Communications should focus as much as possible on qualifications and job
performance; emphasizing certain groups as needing more assistance could
well backfire. A case study of the multinational Finnish company TRANSCO
found it was possible to develop a consistent global philosophy for diversity
management. However, differences in legal and cultural factors across nations
forced TRANSCO to develop unique policies to match the cultural and legal
frameworks of each country in which it operated.79
To ensure the top-level management team represents the diversity of its workforce and client base, Safeway implemented the Retail Leadership Development
(RLD) Program, a formal career development program. This program is open
to all employees, so it is inclusive, but women and underrepresented racial or
ethnic groups are particularly encouraged to participate. Interested individuals take a series of examinations to determine whether they have management
potential. Those who perform well on the tests are provided with work in roles
that expose them to managerial opportunities. The program’s comprehensive
nature is underscored by its additional support activities: All managers attend

94.
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CHAPTER 2
Diversity in Organizations
workshops that help them bring diversity concerns front and center in their
staff meetings. They are also charged with providing promising RLD participants with additional training and development opportunities to ensure they
have the skills needed for advancement. The program incorporates the type
of accountability we have said is crucial to the success of diversity efforts; performance bonuses are provided to managers who meet concrete diversity
goals. This program has shown real success: the number of White women store
managers has increased by 31 percent since its inception, and the number of
women-of-color store managers has increased by 92 percent.80
MyManagementLab
Now that you have finished this chapter, go back to www.mymanagementlab.com to continue
practicing and applying the concepts you’ve learned.
Summary and Implications for Managers
This chapter looked at diversity from many perspectives. We paid particular
attention to three variables—biographical characteristics, ability, and diversity
programs. Let’s summarize what we found and consider its importance for a
manager trying to understand organizational behavior.
●
●
●
●
●
●
We can readily observe biographical characteristics, but that doesn’t
mean we should explicitly use them in management decisions. Most
research shows fairly minimal effects of biographical characteristics on
job performance. We also need to be aware of implicit biases we or other
managers may have.
An effective selection process will improve the fit between employees
and job requirements. A job analysis will provide information about jobs
currently being done and the abilities individuals need to perform the
jobs adequately. Applicants can then be tested, interviewed, and evaluated
on the degree to which they possess the necessary abilities.
Promotion and transfer decisions affecting individuals already in the organization’s employ should reflect candidates’ abilities. As with new employees, care should be taken to assess critical abilities incumbents will need
in the job and match those with the organization’s human resources.
To accommodate employees with disabilities, managers can improve the
fit by fine-tuning the job to better match an incumbent’s abilities. Often,
modifications with no significant impact on the job’s basic activities, such
as changing equipment or reorganizing tasks within a group, can better
adapt work to the specific talents of a given employee.
Diversity management must be an ongoing commitment that crosses all
levels of the organization. Group management, recruiting, hiring, retention, and development practices can all be designed to leverage diversity
for the organization’s competitive advantage.
Policies to improve the climate for diversity can be effective, so long as
they are designed to acknowledge all employees’ perspectives. One-shot
diversity training sessions are less likely to be effective than comprehensive programs that address the climate for diversity at multiple levels.

95.
Summary and Implications for Managers
Men Have More Mathematical Ability Than Women
POINT
H
arvard’s Larry Summers was forced to resign from
his job as president of the university for claiming that
women have different abilities than men, but there is
some truth to the claim. Evidence reliability indicates significant
gender differences in mathematical test scores.
To be sure, there are many, many women whose mathematical and scientific prowess far surpasses that of many men. The
distributions overlap to a considerable degree.
It is also true that most research shows that overall intelligence doesn’t differ between genders: women are as smart
as men. But the fact of the matter is, the way in which men and
women are smart is, on average, different. Women tend to have
significantly higher scores on verbal ability measures and men
tend to have significantly higher scores on measures of mathematical ability.
Many sociologists and educational psychologists argue
that these differences are explained by socialization: boys are
socialized toward and rewarded for mathematical prowess,
whereas girls are pointed toward and expected to excel in writing and reading.
These socialization arguments, however, ignore some cold,
hard truths that have been uncovered in the latest research. We
know from neural imaging research that men’s and women’s
brains differ. Men tend to show higher activation in the area
of the brain responsible for mathematical and for spatial
operations. Women, in contrast, tend to have better bilateral
communication (the right and left sides of their brain communicate better), which is vital to reading comprehension and written and oral expression. Do we really think a child’s third-grade
teacher caused these differences?
No reasonable person suggests that boys and girls should
be steered into different occupations based on these findings.
Men and women should pursue the occupations that suit their
abilities and that they will find rewarding. But should our pursuit
of egalitarianism blind us to scientific findings that suggest the
obvious: men and women are not exactly alike?
COUNTERPOINT
W
omen make up about half the new entrants in the
professions of law, medicine, and dentistry. They are
the vast majority of veterinarians. Yet they remain
woefully underrepresented in science, mathematics, and technology positions. For example, only about one in five of recent
entrants into engineering graduate programs are women, and
in natural sciences and computer science departments at the
top universities, fewer than one in ten tenured professors are
women. If women are at such a disadvantage in terms of math
and science abilities, why are they better represented in some
occupations than others? Differing motivations produced by
teacher and parent expectations are the answer. If we think
women aren’t natural engineers, then we learn to steer girls
away from such career choices.
It is true there are gender differences in math test scores,
but those differences are not large. And often ignored is a
widely documented phenomenon: among the very young,
girls outperform boys on math (as well as on other) tests. By
adolescence, this advantage reverses and boys outperform
girls. If socialization and school experiences do not explain this
result, what does?
Moreover, we know that a large part of the reason fewer
women enter science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) positions is not ability but motivation. Research
indicates that women perceive careers in STEM fields to be
less interpersonally fulfilling, and this explains their gravitation
toward other fields. If we are concerned about sex differences
in participation in these fields, we need to be concerned with
the motivational effects of these perceptions, not with any
presumed differences in male and female abilities.
Sources: Based on A. B. Diekman, E. R. Brown, A. M. Johnston, and E. K. Clark, “Seeking Congruity between Goals and Roles:
A New Look at Why Women Opt Out of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers,” Psychological Science
21, no. 8 (2010), pp. 1051–1057; S. J. Ceci and W. Williams, “Sex Differences in Math-Intensive Fields,” Current Directions
in Psychological Science 19, no. 5 (2010), pp. 275–279; and J. Tierney, “Legislation Won’t Close Gender Gap in Sciences,”
The New York Times (June 14, 2010), pp. 1–4.
61

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QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
1
2
What are the two major forms of workforce diversity?
What are stereotypes and how do they function in
organizational settings?
3
4
5
6
What is intellectual ability and how is it relevant to OB?
How can you contrast intellectual and physical ability?
How do organizations manage diversity effectively?
What are the key biographical characteristics and how
are they relevant to OB?
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE
Feeling Excluded
This six-step exercise takes approximately 20 minutes.
Individual Work (Steps 1 and 2)
1. All participants are asked to recall a time when they have
felt uncomfortable or targeted because of their demographic status. Ideally, situations at work should be used,
but if no work situations come to mind, any situation
will work. Encourage students to use any demographic
characteristic they think is most appropriate, so they can
write about feeling excluded on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability status, religion, or any other
characteristic. They should briefly describe the situation,
what precipitated the event, how they felt at the time,
how they reacted, and how they believe the other party
could have made the situation better.
2. The instructor asks the students to then think about a
time when they might have either deliberately or accidentally done something that made someone else feel
excluded or targeted because of their demographic
status. Once again, they should briefly describe the
situation, what precipitated the event, how they felt at
the time, how the other person reacted, and how they
could have made the situation better.
Small Groups (Steps 3 and 4)
3. Once everyone has written their descriptions, divide
the class into small groups of not more than four
ETHICAL DILEMMA
people. If at all possible, try to compose groups that
are somewhat demographically diverse, to avoid
intergroup conflicts in the class review discussion.
Students should be encouraged to discuss their
situations and consider how their experiences were
similar or different.
4. After reading through everyone’s reactions, each
group should develop a short list of principles for
how they personally can avoid excluding or targeting
people in the future. Encourage them to be as
specific as possible, and also ask each group to find
solutions that work for everyone. Solutions should
focus on both avoiding these situations in the first
place and resolving them when they do occur.
Class Review (Steps 5 and 6)
5. Members of each group are invited to provide a very
brief summary of the major principles of how they’ve
felt excluded or targeted, and then to describe their
groups’ collective decisions regarding how these
situations can be minimized in the future.
6. The instructor should lead a discussion on how
companies might be able to develop comprehensive
policies that will encourage people to be sensitive in
their interactions with one another.
Board Quotas
That women are underrepresented on boards of directors
is an understatement. In the United States, only 15 percent
of board members among the Fortune 500 are women.
Among the 100 largest companies in Great Britain, women
hold approximately 12 percent of board seats, a representation that has changed little over the past 5 years. In the
European Union (EU) more generally, only 9.7 percent of
the directors of the 300 largest companies are women. In
China and India, the figure is roughly half that.
In response to such underrepresentation, many EU
countries—including France, Spain, and Norway—have
instituted compulsory quotas for female representation on
boards. Great Britain has guidelines and recommendations.
A 2011 official British government report recommended
that women make up at least 25 percent of the boards of
the largest British companies. Under the recommended
guidelines, companies would be required to announce
their board composition goals to their shareholders and
state clearly how they plan on meeting them. France passed
a law in 2011 that requires large companies to fill at least
40 percent of board seats with female members within the
next six years. Spain has a similar quota in place.

97.
Case Incident 1
Questions
1. Given that women participate in the labor force
in roughly the same proportion as men, why do
you think women occupy so few seats on boards
of directors?
2. Do you agree with the quotas established in many EU
countries? Why or why not?
63
3. Beyond legal remedies, what do you think can be
done to increase women’s representations on boards
of directors?
4. One recent study found no link between female representation on boards of directors and these companies’
corporate sustainability or environmental policies. The
study’s author expressed surprise at the findings. Do
the findings surprise you? Why or why not?
Sources: J. Werdigier, “In Britain, a Push for More Women on Boards of Large Companies,” The New York
Times (February 25, 2011), p. B3; and J. Galbreath, “Are There Gender-Related Influences on Corporate
Sustainability? A Study of Women on Boards of Directors,” Journal of Management & Organization 17,
no. 1 (2011), pp. 17–38.
CASE INCIDENT 1
The Flynn Effect
Given that a substantial amount of intellectual ability is
inherited, it might surprise you to learn that intelligence test
scores are rising. In fact, scores have risen so dramatically
that today’s great-grandparents seem mentally deficient by
comparison. First, let’s review the evidence for rising test
scores. Then we’ll review explanations for the results.
On an IQ scale where 100 is the average, scores have
been rising about 3 points per decade, meaning if your
grandparent scored 100, the average score for your
generation would be around 115. That’s a pretty big
difference—about a standard deviation, meaning someone
from your grandparent’s generation whose score was at the
84th percentile would be only average (50th percentile) by
today’s norms.
James Flynn is a New Zealand researcher credited
with first documenting the rising scores. He reported the
results in 1984, when he found that almost everyone who
took a well-validated IQ test in the 1970s did better than
those who took one in the 1940s. The results appear to
hold up across cultures. Test scores are rising not only in
the United States but in most other countries in which the
effect has been tested, too.
What explains the Flynn effect? Researchers are not
entirely sure, but some of the explanations offered are these:
1. Education. Students today are better educated than
their ancestors, and education leads to higher test scores.
2. Smaller families. In 1900, the average couple had
four children; today the number is fewer than two. We
know firstborns tend to have higher IQs than other
children, probably because they receive more attention than their later-born siblings.
3. Test-taking savvy. Today’s children have been tested
so often that they are test-savvy: they know how to take
tests and how to do well on them.
4. Genes. Although smart couples tend to have fewer,
not more, children (which might lead us to expect
intelligence in the population to drop over time), it’s
possible that due to better education, tracking, and
testing, those who do have the right genes are better
able to exploit those advantages. Some genetics
researchers also have argued that if genes for intelligence carried by both parents are dominant, they
win out, meaning the child’s IQ will be as high as or
higher than those of the parents.
Despite the strong heritability of IQ, researchers continue to pursue mechanisms that might raise IQ scores.
Factors like brain exercises (even video games) and regular physical exercise seem to at least temporarily boost
brain power. Other recent research in neuroscience has
had difficulty pinpointing physical mechanisms that can
lead to a boost in IQ, although researchers propose that a
focus on brain chemicals like dopamine may lead, in time,
to drugs that can boost IQ chemically.
Questions
1. Do you believe people are really getting smarter? Why
or why not?
2. Which of the factors explaining the Flynn effect do
you accept?
3. If the Flynn effect is true, does this undermine the
theory that IQ is mostly inherited? Why or why not?
Sources: Based on S. Begley, “Sex, Race, and IQ: Off Limits?” Newsweek (April 20, 2009), www.newsweek
.com; M. A. Mingroni, “Resolving the IQ Paradox: Heterosis as a Cause of the Flynn Effect and Other
Trends,” Psychological Review (July 2007), pp. 806–829; and S. Begley, “Can You Build a Better Brain?”
Newsweek (January 10, 2011), www.newsweek.com.

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CHAPTER 2
CASE INCIDENT 2
Diversity in Organizations
Increasing Age Diversity in the Workplace
Over the past century, the average age of the workforce
has continually increased as medical science continues
to enhance longevity and vitality. The fastest-growing
segment of the workforce is individuals over the age of 55.
Recent medical research is exploring techniques that
could extend human life to 100 years or more. In addition,
the combination of laws prohibiting age discrimination
and elimination of defined-benefit pension plans means
that many individuals continue to work well past the traditional age of retirement.
Unfortunately, older workers face a variety of
discriminatory attitudes in the workplace. Researchers
scanned more than 100 publications on age discrimination
to determine what types of age stereotypes were most
prevalent across studies. They found that stereotypes
suggested job performance declined with age, counter to
empirical evidence presented earlier in this chapter that
relationships between age and core task performance are
essentially nil. Stereotypes also suggest that older workers
are less adaptable, less flexible, and incapable of learning
new concepts. Research, on the other hand, suggests they
are capable of learning and adapting to new situations
when these are framed appropriately.
Organizations can take steps to limit age discrimination
and ensure that employees are treated fairly regardless of
age. Many of the techniques to limit age discrimination
come down to fundamentally sound management practices
relevant for all employees: set clear expectations for
performance, deal with problems directly, communicate
with workers frequently, and follow clear policies and
procedures consistently. In particular, management
professionals note that clarity and consistency can help
ensure all employees are treated equally regardless of age.
Questions
1. What changes in employment relationships are likely
to occur as the population ages?
2. Do you think increasing age diversity will create new
challenges for managers? What types of challenges do
you expect will be most profound?
3. How can organizations cope with differences related
to age discrimination in the workplace?
4. What types of policies might lead to charges of age
discrimination, and how can they be changed to
eliminate these problems?
Sources: Based on D. Stipp, “The Anti-Aging Revolution,” Fortune (June 14, 2010), pp. 124–130;
R. A. Posthuma and M. A. Campion, “Age Stereotypes in the Workplace: Common Stereotypes, Moderators,
and Future Research Directions,” Journal of Management 35 (2009), pp. 158–188; and H. Perlowski, “With
an Aging Workforce, a Rising Risk of Discrimination Claims,” Workforce Management Online (July 2008),
www.workforce.com.
ENDNOTES
1. M. DiNatale and S. Boraas, “The Labor Force Experience of
Women from Generation X,” Monthly Labor Review (March
2002), pp. 1–15.
2. See, for example, F. Welch, “Catching Up: Wages of Black
Men,” The American Economic Review 93, no. 2 (2003),
pp. 320–325; A. Sakamoto, H. Wu, and J. M. Tzeng,
“The Declining Significance of Race Among American
Men During the Latter Half of the Twentieth Century,”
Demography 37 (January 2000), pp. 41–51; and A Sakomoto,
K. A. Goyette, and C. Kim, “Socioeconomic Attainments
of Asian Americans,” Annual Review of Sociology 35, (2009),
pp. 255–276.
3. J. Schram, SHRM Workplace Forecast (Alexandria, VA: Society
for Human Resource Management, 2006).
4. D. A. Harrison, K. H. Price, J. H. Gavin, and A. T. Florey,
“Time, Teams, and Task Performance: Changing Effects of
Surface- and Deep-Level Diversity on Group Functioning,”
Academy of Management Journal 45, no. 5 (2002), pp. 1029–1045;
and A. H. Eagly and J. L. Chin, “Are Memberships in
5.
6.
7.
8.
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Categories Merely Surface
Characteristics?” American Psychologist 65 (2010), pp. 934–935.
P. Chattopadhyay, M. Tluchowska, and E. George,
“Identifying the Ingroup: A Closer Look at the Influence
of Demographic Dissimilarity on Employee Social Identity,”
Academy of Management Review 29, no. 2 (2004), pp. 180–202;
and P. Chattopadhyay, “Beyond Direct and Symmetrical
Effects: The Influence of Demographic Dissimilarity on
Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” Academy of Management
Journal 42, no. 3 (1999), pp. 273–287.
L. M. Cortina, “Unseen Injustice: Incivility as Modern
Discrimination in Organizations,” Academy of Management
Review 33, no. 1 (2008), pp. 55–75.
R. J. Grossman, “Keep Pace with Older Workers,” HR
Magazine (May 2008), pp. 39–46.
K. A. Wrenn and T. J. Maurer, “Beliefs About Older Workers’
Learning and Development Behavior in Relation to Beliefs
About Malleability of Skills, Age-Related Decline, and
Control,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34, no. 2 (2004),
pp. 223–242; and R. A. Posthuma and M. A. Campion,
“Age Stereotypes in the Workplace: Common Stereotypes,